Carol Vorderman makes emergency landing on solo flight

Carol Vorderman was forced to make an emergency landing from 1,200ft after she smelled smoke in her plane on a solo flight.

The Loose Women and Pride of Britain host, who is training to fly around the world solo next year, ran into trouble yesterday after she smelled burning seconds after take-off.

Vorderman, 52, said she “calmly” managed to bring down the Piper PA-28 plane at Gloucestershire Airfield in Staverton, Cheltenham, as traffic control cleared runways and sent a fire engine to the scene.

“At 1,200 feet there was this huge whoosh and a burning smell through the cabin, and the engine started making noises.

“I stayed calm and went into emergency checks, put the throttle down and radioed the airfield, so I could go down to land. Afterwards I was a bit jittery because I had two wings full of fuel,” she told the Mirror

It was Vorderman’s fourth solo flight and she is just five sessions away from getting her private pilot’s licence. Next she will need to pass her commercial pilot’s exam before the 29,000-mile world trip following the route of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo.