About 160 tired holidaymakers arrived back at Stansted on Friday more than 30 hours late after their jet developed problems in the Canary Islands.

Passengers were subjected to a series of delays when their homeward-bound plane developed a technical fault on the holiday island of Fuerteventura.

The group were due to take off at about 12 noon on Wednesday on an Airtours 320 jet when problems developed and the group was forced to spend the night in a hotel.

The company - the UK's second biggest tour firm - eventually used one of its own jets from Britain and the stranded passengers finally arrived at Stansted Airport at 2.50am today - 34 hours late.

A spokeswoman for Airtours said: "The aircraft developed a technical problem which caused a delay. Obviously the weather conditions were beyond our control.

"We apologise to the passengers who will be compensated for the inconvenience caused."

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