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A passenger has described how 'big flames' were visible from the cabin of a British Airways plane before it was dramatically forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow today. The Airbus A319, which was carrying 75 passengers on its journey to Oslo, was forced to return to the airport moments after taking off because of a 'technical fault', British Airways has said. Dramatic footage from the scene shows smoke billowing from the plane while it is still in the air and eyewitness have described hearing 'a blowout' and seeing one of the engines on fire as it flew overhead. Speculation has emerged that the plane had run into a 'bird strike', although there has been no official confirmation of this. A Heathrow spokesman said all of the passengers have been 'safely evacuated' and 'accounted for'. The spokesman said the airport itself remained open throughout the incident. Both runways had to be closed this morning but were later reopened and the plane has been towed away for investigations. Officials have ruled out a terror attack and investigators are now looking into the possibility of a bird strike shortly after take-off. David Gallagher, who was a passenger on the flight to Oslo, said 'big flames' were 'very visible' from the cabin.