Middle East News
False alert forces Saudi jet's emergency landing (2nd Roundup)
Mar 16, 2009, 15:10 GMT
Sana'a, Yemen - A false fire alert forced a Saudi Airlines plane to make an emergency landing at Sana'a International Airport in Yemen on Monday, airport officials said.
The officials earlier said the plane's pilot reported a fire on board the aircraft carrying more than 90 people before the landing safely at the airport.
'A malfunction in the plane's control panel caused a false fire alert,' an unnamed official was quoted as saying official Saba news agency.
He said all the passengers and crew disembarked and were unharmed.
The Boeing 777 was en route from Red Sea Saudi port city of Jeddah to Johannesburg, an airport official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the air traffic control at Sana'a Airport received an emergency landing request from the pilot, who reported a fire in the luggage section of the jet.
'The plane was on the Red Sea outside the Yemeni airspace when the pilot declared the state of emergency,' the official said.
'The plane landed safely after we responded positively to the request and declared the state of emergency at the airport,' he added.
A total of 98 people, including the crew, disembarked safely from the plane, according to the Yemeni official.
He said it took six hours for technicians to fix the electrical malfunction, and the plane flew back to Jeddah without the passengers, who continued their flight to Johannesburg on another Saudi Airplane sent from Jeddah.
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