FIVE planes were prevented from landing at Manchester Airport due to thick fog on Saturday morning.

One plane travelling from Karachi was in a "holding pattern" over Westhoughton and the north side of Bolton for about 40 minutes waiting to see if weather conditions had improved enough to land at Manchester.

The pilot eventually decided to land the plane at Heathrow.

Sam Campbell, Terminal Duty Manager at Manchester Airport said the majority of planes still managed to land despite the conditions at the airport.

She said individual pilots made the decision about whether or not to land depending on how much fuel they had in the plane.

If a plane started to run low on fuel, the pilot would choose to land it at the nearest available airport instead, she said.

The foggy weather lifted by mid morning.