A PLANE carrying 47 passengers made an emergency landing this morning after a mid-air instrument failure.

The easyJet flight from Belfast to Liverpool reported a malfunction on its altimeters just after 7am.

The pilot held the 737 at the same height and the problem rectified itself.

As a precaution, he continued following the emergency procedure and landed the plane at its scheduled time of 7.35am.

Robin Tudor, business services manager at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, said: "There was a discrepancy between the altimeter readings but the problem rectified itself.

"The pilot followed standard procedures by making an emergency landing.

"The plane landed normally and safely and nobody was hurt.

"The passengers will have known what was happening as it is policy to keep them informed."

The emergency landing took place just two hours before firefighters were due to walk out on strike.

However, Mr Tudor said the industrial action would have had no impact on airport safety.

He added: "We have our own fire service and they are fully trained.

"Municipal firefighters are only there to provide back-up, for example by ferrying water to us if we ran low.

"On a strike day we increase our own fire service personnel and bring out a large water tanker, so there is no safety issue caused by the industrial action."