A JET with more than 200 passengers on board that was forced to circle of Hampshire's coast for four hours after “losing cabin pressure” has landed safely. 

The plane left Heathrow destined for New York at about 11am this morning but United Airlines say a “maintenance issue” meant it had to divert its flight path.

Initially the Boeing 767-400 was expected to land at Heathrow at 1.15pm and then 3pm but a radar tracker showed the plane still circling near Southampton until after 3pm.

Twitter user Marcus Mollinga, who said he was on the flight, wrote: “Lost all cabin pressure - had to fly at 8,000-10,000 feet.

“Cabin crew said the plane would blow up if we went over the Atlantic!”

A problem was first reported at 11.04am and it was required to burn fuel in a holding pattern at a low altitude for more than three hours.

Images now show that the plane has landed safely in London.