Passengers couldn’t bee-lieve it when they found out what forced their Flybe plane to make an unscheduled landing. 

The drama began when flight 384 began experiencing trouble with instruments while airborne from Southampton to Dublin.

Concerned for the safety of passengers, the pilot turned and made a beeline for Southampton Airport. 

But back on the ground engineers were stunned to find the cause of the engine trouble was actually a tiny bumble bee.

With the yellow and black bug removed from harm's way the plane again took off, safely landing in Dublin after a two-hour delay.

Following the landing, a passenger Noel Rooney contacted the Daily Echo.

Mr Rooney said: “Well, that’s never happened to me before. A bumble bee got stuck in the wind instrument thingie on Flybe flight BE384. Yep, that FlyBEE.”

A Flybe spokesman said: “Flybe can confirm that flight BE384 travelling to Dublin returned from airborne to Southampton following a suspected technical issue.

"The aircraft landed without incident and all passengers disembarked as normal.

“Upon inspection, Flybe engineers did discover that the cause of the issue was a bee that had become lodged in an item of instrumentation on the outside of the aircraft.

“The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s number one priority and Flybe regrets any inconvenience experienced as a result of the delay to this flight.”