MYRTLE the jet-set turtle has made an amazing journey back to the wild with the help of a Greater Manchester airline - two years after she was washed up on a beach.

The loggerhead turtle was found close to death on the shores of the Western Isles of Scotland, her front right flipper eaten by sharks.

Now a Rochdale-based airline has flown her all the way home to Gran Canaria, where she was released back into the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life.

Myrtle flew on a MyTravel jet carrying hundreds of holidaymakers from Manchester Airport to Las Palmas, a journey that marked the end of her recovery at sanctuaries in Oban and at the Scarborough Sea Life Centre.

Mark Oakley, from Sea Life Centres headquarters in Dorset, co-ordinated her journey and helped her get into the water.

He said: "She took one sniff of the surf and went off with great gusto. She was gone in under a minute.

'Emotional'

"It was very emotional for the team that looked after her and that nursed her back to health. Hopefully she'll live a happy and healthy life in the wide ocean and, with luck, we won't get a visit from her again."

Myrtle was found clinging to life on a beach on North Uist in June 2004. She was wounded, dehydrated and near to death.

Her home is the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa, but it is believed that she was carried to Scotland by the Gulf Stream. The warm ocean current provides loggerheads with a bountiful supply of their favourite food, jellyfish.

MyTravel came to her aid after staff were told her rescuers were ready to release her back into the wild.

Crate

The firm flew her from Manchester Airport to Gran Canaria in a special crate on Monday and she spent a night in a turtle hospital near Las Palmas before she was released yesterday with 10 other rescued turtles.

A spokesman for MyTravel Airways said: "Myrtle was carefully packed up in a specially-designed box and cage for her flight of freedom to Las Palmas.

"She spent time in the Tortuga Hospital Centro de Recuperacion De Fauna part of the Canarian Institute of Marine Sciences before being released into the wild. We were only too happy to help."