A flight carrying England fans back from Berlin has been forced to make an emergency landing due to what the airline said was an ‘undefined smell in the cabin’.

The Manchester-bound flight was forced to return to the German airport around 15 minutes after it took off this morning.

Flight EW8470 took off at 8.09am and climbed to 10,000 feet before turning around and landing back at Berlin at 8.26am, flight trackers show.

The Airbus A319 was met by the airport fire service and the roughly 150 passengers and crew on board were evacuated and taken back to the terminal.

Brits on board have complained about being left ‘stranded’ for hours with no information, with many going back through passport control and saying they have had no texts from operator Eurowings.

John Hattam from York, who has flown out to watch all the games in the Euros knock-out stages, told MailOnline he is ‘angry’ about how operator Eurowings has handled the delay.

‘It’s not quite how we thought the weekend would pan out,’ said the exhausted England fan.

To avoid forking out for accommodation, John flew out to watch the match yesterday morning then headed straight to the airport at 2am last night.

He has been there ever since, and worried at one point that he’d have to wait until Tuesday to get another plane out.

Now, he says, a flight is scheduled for 3.30pm – though he says he and fellow passengers only know this from airport departure boards and have received no texts from Eurowings.

He said that passengers were given vouchers worth just five euros to get food with, which they were told could be redeemed throughout the airport.

But when they went to various food outlets, he said, ‘they all told us you can’t use them here.’

‘It’s frustrating, we were all disappointed by the result last night and then this happens. We’re glad we are all safe – worse things happen – it’s just how it’s been dealt with.’

He said that the flight took off with ‘seemingly no problems’ before the pilot told passengers that there was a ‘burning smell’ in the cockpit and that they would need to land.

‘The landing was all handled very well, we were pleased just to be on the ground and safe, and credit to the pilot for that,’ said John.

‘However it was the aftermath that was chaotic, that’s what people are unhappy about.’

Another passenger, Gareth Davies from Wigan, told The Independent: ‘A few minutes into the flight the captain came on and said we had to go back to Berlin due to a warning light flashing on the controls.

‘Upon landing we sat there for a short period and a smell of burning entered the cabin,’ he said.

He added that passengers were told not to worry about the fire engines on the ground and to take their luggage.

They were then bussed to the terminal, where he said there was no one available except passport control staff.

‘We hadn’t been told what would happen next so we all went through passport control,’ he said.

‘People had no clue about their checked bags and many exited the baggage hall – I only had carry on.’ 

Writing on X, he said there had been Eurowings rep to meet passengers from the plane, saying the airline ‘literally just bunged us all back in to the airport with no communication whatsoever.’

Mr Davies also wrote on X that a flight attendant had told him not to take photos or videos because they didn’t want ‘bad press on social media’.

Eurowings said that passengers and crew were not in danger ‘at any time’ during the incident.

It also told German media that passengers will now be rebooked on alternative flights. 

The airline said in a statement : ‘Flight EW8470 made an unscheduled return to Berlin this morning due to an undefined smell in the cabin. 

‘The aircraft was subsequently inspected without any findings. As a result, the flight will be delayed and all passengers have already been informed by SMS.’