Bangalore-bound Malaysia Airlines jet in emergency landing after tyre bursts

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's transport minister has praised the pilot of a Bangalore-bound troubled Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plane that was forced to make an emergency landing early today at an airport here for his "skillful" handling of the aircraft.

Flight MH192, bound for Bangalore, India, turned back to Kuala Lumpur after it was discovered that a tyre had burst on take-off, the airline said. "As safety is of utmost priority to Malaysia Airlines, the aircraft was required to turn back to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport)," the airline said in a statement.

The plane landed safely at 1:56 am (1756 GMT), nearly four hours after it took off, the flag carrier said. "All 159 passengers and 7 crew members on board have disembarked from the aircraft." The airline said tyre debris discovered on the runway had led to the decision to bring the Boeing 737-800 aircraft back.

"The passengers, despite being tired, expressed their admiration for the pilot's skillful handling of the aircraft in making the emergency landing safe (at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport) without any harm to the passengers," Hishammuddin Hussein

Later, Hussein tweeted that he was proud of the crew of MH192 for handling the situation well.  

The transport minister said he has also asked MAS to prepare a report about the incident and submit it to the ministry. "Although MAS is under Khazanah Nasional, (the government's investment arm) we want a comprehensive report by Wednesday. "This is because there have been many incidents involving MAS, including the disappearance of Flight MH370. The report has to be handed to my ministry and the Cabinet," he said.

The minister, who met the passengers soon after the emergency landing, told reporters that they had appreciated the pilot's handling of the aircraft landing safely. Also present at the press conference was the pilot, Capt Nor Adam Azmi Abdul Razak, and several of the crew members.

Flight MH192, which departed for Bangalore, India, with 159 passengers and seven crew at 10.09 pm (local time) on Sunday, suffered a landing gear snag upon take-off and turned back to KL International Airport. It landed safely at 1.56 am (local time) on Monday. Hishammuddin placed a pilot's cap on Nor Adam's head as a gesture of appreciation.

"They have landed safely -- thank God," tweeted Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is overseeing Malaysia's response to MH370. The airline is still reeling from the loss and presumed crash of flight MH370, which disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

MH370 inexplicably diverted and is now believed to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard. Hishammuddin had tweeted that MH192 went into a holding pattern as other reports quoted officials saying it would only be allowed to land once all of its fuel had been burned off.

An Australian-led multi-nation search effort is now scouring a remote area of the Indian Ocean for wreckage from flight MH370 in a bid to confirm its fate and hopefully recover the flight data recorders to determine what happened to it.

No surface debris has been found despite a month of searching, but search crews had earlier picked up signals believed to be from the beacons of the plane's data recorders. A US Navy submersible sonar scanning device is now being deployed to look for wreckage on the seabed at depths of around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) or more.

Nothing has yet been found and authorities have indicated they may reassess within days how to approach the extremely challenging search -- expected to be the costliest in aviation history with estimates of more than $100 million.