David Moyes made an unexpected return to Manchester on Sunday morning after new side Sunderland's plane was forced into making an emergency landing.
The Black Cats were heading for Geneva in their own chartered flight from Newcastle Airport as part of their pre-season preparations when turbulence hit early on.
A technical fault was then found with one of the engines which led to the pilot grounding the plane in Manchester, meaning a shaky start to life at Sunderland for former Manchester United boss Moyes.
The Sun quotes a Manchester Airport spokeswoman as saying: "It was a flight carrying the Sunderland football team.
"They had set off from Newcastle earlier and the aircraft was showing a technical failure, so it was diverted to Manchester as a precaution. It landed safely and all passengers disembarked while safety checks were made."
The unexpected diversion comes a day after a similar incident saw Man United make an early landing in Tianjin as a result of bad weather conditions.
Sunderland return to action on Monday evening when they face FC Stade Nyonnais at the Stade Camille-Fournier in France.
Daniel Lewis
