Pilot : "any seen me phone?"

A mobile phone has now joined the long list of reasons for flight delays, after a pilot dropped his through a gap in the cockpit floor.

The phone fell just before takeoff at Doncaster Robin Hood airport on Sunday as the pilot was complying with his own instructions to turn off mobiles.

He fumbled and the phone vanished between the pedals. After a four-hour search a relief flight had to be organised to take 178 holidaymakers to Tenerife.

A Thomsonfly spokeswoman said: "As safety is always our priority the captain had no choice but to delay takeoff until the phone was found."

A passenger said: “We just couldn’t believe our ears. We thought we’d heard every excuse in the book for delays but this one took the biscuit.

“At least the pilot was honest right from the start.

“He told us over the tannoy that we couldn’t take off until he found his mobile phone. Fifteen minutes later he said he was still looking for it.

“So we just waited and waited and he kept announcing they were still looking.

“Then he said the engineers had dismantled some of the panels in the cockpit but they still couldn’t find the phone anywhere.”