Smoke prompts Cathay Pacific emergency landing

  • 30/07/2015
(File)
(File)

A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles has made an emergency landing at a military base in Alaska, after smoke was detected on the aircraft.

The flight made the "precautionary diversion" to a US military airport on the Aleutian Islands late on Wednesday (local time), the airline said.

"All passengers and crew are safe," Cathay Pacific said of the 276 passengers and 18 crew on flight CX884.

A spokeswoman for the airline said that the aircraft – along with all passengers and crew – had already left the base and arrived in Anchorage, Alaska's most populous city.

Cathay said it had made special arrangements to assist passengers affected by the diversion, including sending a "relief flight" to Anchorage.

"The captain of CX884 made exactly the right decision to divert the flight as a precautionary measure," said Cathay's director of service delivery James Ginns.

"We will launch a thorough investigation into what caused the smoke that was detected."

AFP