Relja, 19, and his friends Martin, Samuel, Evgeni and Michelle were about to touch back down at Norwich Airport on Wednesday after a sunny getaway in Alicante.

But moments before landing, their Ryanair flight was forced to return to the air due to misty weather conditions.

The flight was unable to land at Norwich Airport (Image: Denise Bradley)

And a city more than 150 miles away from Norwich was soon mentioned as the new destination, much to the teenager's horror.

"It was outrageous," he said. "They threatened to take us to Birmingham."

But, after some time, the pilot announced a space had opened up for the Boeing 737 MAX at Stansted Airport - 84 miles away.

The next flight to Alicante, scheduled to leave from Norwich Airport at 6.55pm on Wednesday, arrived 13 hours late as a result of the diversion.

It took off at 8.23am on Thursday.

"People [flying to Alicante] who bought stuff in duty-free had to take it back," Relja said. "It defeats the point of duty-free.

"Most of the passengers were elderly and there were lots of people in wheelchairs."

Three coaches arrived at Stansted to bring the passengers back to Norwich.

"I wonder why the KLM flight from Amsterdam to Norwich was still allowed to land," Relja added. "It was extremely foggy."

A spokesman for Ryanair added: "This flight from Alicante to Norwich diverted to London Stansted due to the heavy fog at Norwich Airport.

"To get passengers to their final destination as quickly as possible, we arranged for alternative transport from London to Norwich that same evening."

© Norwich Evening News