London - The pilot of a British passenger plane balked at landing at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport because there was too much fog, the airline said Wednesday.

Budget airline Flybe said the pilot was not qualified to land in fog and - minutes from touching down in Paris - returned to Cardiff, in Wales, from where Tuesday's flight had taken off.

"The Flybe pilot who flew BE 1431 from Cardiff International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle is an experienced aviator with more than 30 years commercial aviation experience flying a number of different passenger aircraft types," a spokeswoman for the airline said.

"He has relatively recently transferred his 'type-rating' from a Bombardier Q300 to a Bombardier Q400 and has not yet completed the requisite low-visibility training to complete a landing in conditions such as the dense fog experienced in Paris Charles de Gaulle."

Passenger Cassandra Grant told the South Wales Echo Wednesday: "The whole thing beggars belief. If I had not been on the plane, I would not have believed it."

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority described the incident as "quite unusual but probably not unheard of." (dpa)