A Birmingham teenager who narrowly escaped injury in last week's tornado yesterday had another escape when the aircraft she was on was engulfed in smoke.

Leyla Turkoglu (pictured) was among 56 passengers on the flybe jet from Birmingham to Edinburgh when it was forced into an emergency landing at Leeds-Bradford International Airport after thick smoke billowed from one of its engines.

The 19 year-old student, from Kings Heath, who had been in Tavistock Square in London the day before the July 7 terrorist bombings, said: "I think disaster is following me like a shadow at the moment.

"I just feel really lucky to be alive."

Miss Turkoglu, who is to study English at University College London in September, said she had been asleep on the flybe BE282 flight from Birmingham International Airport to Edinburgh.

"When I woke up there was a smell, but it wasn't very strong. I thought my vision was blurred, until I noticed little wisps of smoke above me.

"Everyone started looking at each other and wondering what was going on. At first we thought someone was smoking, but the air hostess looked absolutely terrified.

"She was on the phone but she got down on her knees and put her hand over her mouth so we couldn't hear her. Then the crew put hooded smoke masks on, and people started to panic and shout 'where's mine?'

"It was getting quite smoky and people were coughing. An automatic message said the captain was making an emergency landing and the crew came round and checked everyone was in the 'brace' position. We were told to take off glasses, dentures, high heels, anything sharp. By then I was crying and holding hands with the woman next to me, who was sobbing on her husband's shoulder.

"People were totally distraught. The plane was going down quite quickly and really shaking. I looked out of the window and all I could see was trees and fields. We had no idea where we were going to land.

"It was horrible. The girl in front of me was sobbing. People were shaking.

"I thought I was going to burn to death. I kept thinking 'this is going to be the worst way to die'.

"Some people were saying 'If it's our time to die, then it's our time to die'. I wanted to scream 'but I'm only 19!' I'd never experienced actual terror before but that's what it was."

No one was hurt and after the landing at Leeds, the passengers congratulated the pilot. Miss Turkoglu cancelled her visit to Edinburgh and travelled home - by train - to her parents.

She said the episode had been much more frightening than the tornado.

"That was quite scary but it was over really quickly," she said. "I was in a supermarket car park in Kings Heath and had just got out of the car when it went dark and started to rain heavily.

"I got back in the car and saw roof tiles flying around and a tree flew past the window. Not just branches but a whole tree trunk."

Four years ago, Miss Turkoglu received a payout after she was injured when two cars collided on the big-dipper roller-coaster at Blackpool, and she once had to change planes on a trip to Cape Cod after a hole was found in the aircraft she should have been on.