French fighter jet 'tracks' Jet2 flight on route to Birmingham

Low-cost carrier Jet2 said it was awaiting confirmation from French aviation officials as to why Flight LS1204 was apparently tracked by the French air force on Friday afternoon.

Pictures of the jet as it shadowed the flight were taken by passengers, showing it side by side their plane in the blue skies.

Passenger Sarah Hatfield, who was travelling back to the UK from Malaga with husband Ian and their 13-year-old daughter Emily, described it as a mixture of 'excitement and terror'.

Cabin crews were alerted on the scheduled flight, with the message passed on to the pilots who were quick to reassure passengers.

Nevertheless, Mrs Hatfield and her family, from Dudley, were left unnerved by the incident.

She explained: "Someone spotted the French jet and told the cabin crew, who I presume told the Jet2 pilots.

"The air stewardess then announced there was nothing to worry about.

"Ian was terrified and it didn't help that loads of other passengers came by us to look out at it."

Mrs Hatfield, from Quarry Bank, said of the fighter jet: "It was so close I could read the writing on its tail fin."

The bank worker, whose daughter took several photos of the French warplane, added: "The feeling on board was a mixture of excitement at seeing the fighter so close up and terror as to if we were about to get shot down."

A spokesperson for Jet2 said: "We are awaiting clarification from the French air traffic authorities, as to why a military aircraft was apparently tracking our aircraft".

It comes a Jet2 aircraft had to make two emergency landings in recent weeks.

The plane was flying from Ibiza to Leeds when it was diverted to Barcelona on July 16.

On Friday, it was diverted to Frankfurt during a flight from Newcastle to Prague.

A spokesman for the airline insisted passenger safety had not been compromised and said the plane had been grounded while engineers investigate a technical fault.