Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell returns to TV screens tonight for the 2014 series of The X Factor. AFP / Getty Images

X Factor host Dermot O'Leary and a number of the show's new contestants were terrified when their plane plunged from the sky over the Bermuda Triangle.

O'Leary was with guest judge Tulisa, Xtra Factor presenter Sarah Jane Crawford, and a number of singing hopefuls on a seven-hour flight back from Louis Walsh's judge's house in Bermuda.

The commercial flight hit bad weather causing the aircraft to plunge.

A source on board told The Sun: "We were all terrified the plane was going to go down. We were heading downwards and there was a lot of screaming and shouting. Nobody stayed calm. Some of us thought we were going to die. It was particularly scary because we knew we were over the Bermuda Triangle.

"The pilot told us the extreme conditions hadn't been picked up on the radar system, so they had to adjust the engines. That caused the plane to dip."

The Bermuda Triangle is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The new series of the X Factor begins on ITV at 8pm tonight (Saturday). Newly married Cheryl Fernandex-Versini returns as a judge on the show, alongside Mel C, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell.