A broken-down aircraft forced Gatwick Airport to close its runway, disrupting thousands of travelers' travel plans.

The airport said that a "departing aircraft having hot brakes" forced the cancellation of 23 flights in all.

It stated that the downed jet has been moved and the runway has been cleared to resume normal operations.

The airport said the runway was closed for 50 minutes.

The incident involved a British Airways flight to Vancouver, Canada.

A statement from the airline said: "Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue.

"Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused."

Patrick Wiltshire was flying from his home in Dubai to visit family in London, when his flight was diverted.

"Five minutes from landing it suddenly diverted and flew to Brussels," he told BBC Radio Sussex, from the airport in Belgium.

"I've missed my taxi booking and I've missed my event for the evening.

"There's been very limited information so we've had to take to our phones to find out what's going on, on Twitter."