FOUR Southend Airport-bound flights were diverted because of fog on Sunday night, leading to long delays for hundreds of passengers.

Fog was ruled enough of a problem for easyJet flights from Edinburgh, Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam to be sent elsewhere for safety reasons.

Two of the flights were diverted to Stansted and two to Gatwick, where conditions were better.

A spokesman for the airport said: “All people were bussed back to Southend Airport and the planes returned to the airport ready to do the flights this morning as normal.”

Several residents reported hearing planes circling over their homes for extended periods before they came in to land.

Others took to Twitter to express their concerns.

Scary Biscuit said: “Some problem over Southend Airport by the looks of it.”

Another user said: “So we’ve been sent to Stansted instead of Southend Airport. I shall be home at 3am. It was because they only had 50 metres visibility and they need 600. I should be counting myself lucky.”