By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft scheduled to fly to London last night had to return to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang shortly after taking off, the national carrier said today.
MAS officials said the MH2 flight experienced a “technical defect” on one of its engines shortly after the plane took off.
“In the interest of passenger safety, the flight captain decided to return to KLIA and the Boeing 747-400 aircraft with 351 passengers and 21 operating crew had an uneventful landing at 0205 hours this morning,” said MAS in a statement to The Malaysian Insider.
The statement said the aircraft was grounded upon arrival, and that a separate rescue aircraft was arranged with a fresh set of crew to continue the flight to London today at 10.30am.
Earlier today, Twitter user @vincentdepaul12 had posted on his account that “MAS flight MH2 KL-London was cancelled early this morning after one of its engines caught fire after take-off. Plane landed safely at KLIA.”
The New Straits Times reported that the MH2 flight had taken off from KLIA at about 12.10am after a 30-minute delay, but continued to circle the airport for 90 more minutes before landing.