Elton John left "shaken" after his private jet makes emergency landing

It's what nightmares are made of and unfortunately for Sir Elton John, he experienced first-hand a terrifying mid-air drama as his private jet suffered hydraulic failure.

The 74-year-old music legend was travelling from Farnborough Airport in Hampshire to New York for a Madison Square Garden concert and was at 10,000ft over Ireland when pilots decided they had to turn back due to a problem with the plane's hydraulic systems.

After the pilot radioed ahead and requested an emergency landing with fire crews racing to the runway to be on hand, matters went from bad to worse when the plane twice failed to land due to high winds.

An eyewitness said: "The jet was being buffeted and couldn't land. It was horrible to see. The terrible weather and epic gusts made it almost impossible to land."

The plane successfully touched down on the third attempt, with sources telling The Sun the Rocket Man was "shaken" by the incident.

However, he later hopped on a plane to the United States to ensure he was in the country in time for his performance as part of his global Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.