Members of the RAF's Oxfordshire-based freefall parachute display team had to be taken to hospital after smoke canisters accidentally went off in their aircraft.

The canisters should have activated as members of the Brize Norton team jumped from the plane yesterday at a show in Northumberland.

Ambulances took 21 people to hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation after the Hercules plane made an emergency landing at Newcastle airport, 30 miles away.

The casualties were later released.

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