Nearly 400 passengers spent their evening at Bermuda International Airport when their Cuba to England flight was forced to make an emergency landing.

Crew on Monarch flight 324 from Havana to Manchester called the airport to request permission to make an emergency landing at 7.10 p.m. after smelling smoke in the cabin.

More than 30 fire personnel and 11 vehicles greeted the A330 Airbus when it came down to land but there was no sign of smoke or fire, said Lt Dana Lovell of the Bermuda Fire Service.

But the problem could not be identified and the flight had to be grounded and the passengers were forced to disembark.

"There was an odour of burning plastic on the plane and they could not find the source of it at first," Airport General Manager James Howes told The Royal Gazette last night.

"The passengers had to leave the plane and wait in the terminal where staff brough them beverages and refreshments.

"But they did track it down in the end to one of the ovens in the rear galley and the passengers reboarded for a 10 p.m. take-off. They were grounded for about two-and-a-half hours."

He added planes regularly had to make emergency landings in Bermuda due to its unique position as the only land mass in this part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Two days ago a Canadian charter flight was forced to stop on the Island after a female passenger became gravely ill.