Passengers were evacuated and emergency services called to the scene as the aircraft was preparing to depart Manchester airport at 10.30am yesterday (August 15) bound for Romania ahead of City’s clash with Steaua Bucharest.
Chief football writer for The Guardian Daniel Taylor, who was evacuated from the aircraft, tweeted: “Four fire engines with sirens on now coming to plane. Cabin had started to fill with smoke. Everyone from City on runway.”
After a 40 minute delay, an investigation by Romanian airline Carpatair found it was not smoke but steam released from the air conditioning unit that was filling the cabin, reports the BBC.
A spokesperson for Manchester airport said: "It appears that there was a smell of smoke in the cabin after [the passengers] boarded."
However, Carpatair president Nicolae Petrov said: "The crew decided to disembark passengers because steam was released into the passenger cabin.
"After the necessary checks, it was established that it was caused by condensation accumulated in the air conditioning ducts system on the long previous flight."
There were no players onboard the plane at the time of the incident.
