KUALA LUMPUR – A KLM flight on a Boeing 777 was forced to return to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport yesterday due to an unspecified technical problem.
Flight KLM705 was headed for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and turned around over Belgium about 40 minutes after take-off with a request to land, European media reported.
It is not yet known what the precise nature of the problem was, but KLM told the media that the passengers and crew onboard were not at risk. The airline said it was arranging for an alternative aircraft for the flight.
Last week, a Boeing 737-800 used by Malaysia Airlines made a turnback and emergency landing in Hyderabad after its right engine caught fire mid-air.
All 138 passengers and crew on flight MH199 bound for Kuala Lumpur were safe, a Malaysia Airlines spokesman said.
The United States aviation giant has been facing public pressure over safety issues since the 2018 and 2019 air crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft on Indonesia’s Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines.
In January, a door plug ripped off in mid-air on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max-9 flight.
Boeing chief executive officer David Calhoun announced in March that he would step down at the end of this year.
Calhoun was also criticised during a US Congressional hearing on the planemaker’s safety issues and poor maintenance culture last week, where he apologised to the victims’ families. – June 24, 2024