An Emirates flight travelling from Sydney to Dubai with nearly 500 people on board made an emergency landing in Colombo Friday morning due to a "technical fault."
The Emirates A380 aircraft was diverted to the Sri Lankan capital and landed safely, according to airport authorities, Business Standard reported.
"Emirates flight EK413 from Sydney to Dubai...was diverted to Colombo due to a technical fault. The aircraft landed safely at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and passengers were transferred to other Emirates flights," the airline said in a statement, apologizing to passengers for the inconvenience, according to IBN Live.
BIA's chief air navigation services officer Crishanthi Tissera said that the flight was 320 nautical miles east of the airport when the pilots issued a distress call.
"The pilots said May Day, May Day and we activated all our emergency services and brought the aircraft to a safe landing," Tissera said. She revealed that the pilots first reported smoke in the cockpit area but later downgraded the "full emergency" to "urgency."
There was no sign of a fire when the plane landed approximately 40 minutes after the first distress call was made. All 471 passengers, including six children and the 30-member crew, disembarked safely.
The A380 is a double-deck, wide-bodied aircraft with four engines manufactured by Airbus, Firstpost reported. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and can operate only at airports with state-of-the-art facilities to accommodate the aircraft.
