Source: www.athina984.gr

An Air France plane bound for Paris was forced to return to the airport this morning, shortly after taking off from Beijing, after a “technical problem”, the airline announced, explaining that the plane landed “normally”.

The crew of Flight AF393, a Boeing-777, “decided to return to Beijing after a 14-minute flight after a technical problem was detected,” the airline explained in a press release.

“The aircraft landed normally in Beijing at 04.03 (local time)”, ie at 23.03 Greek time.

According to the Beijing Daily, “an explosion was heard from the rear of the cockpit and black smoke appeared” inside the aircraft. “Fortunately, no one was injured,” the newspaper wrote.

The appearance of smoke inside the aircraft was confirmed to the French Agency by an aeronautical source in Beijing, but neither Air France nor the authorities of the Chinese airport commented on the information of the Chinese newspaper.

In an interview with AFP, the French company said that the passengers will be transported to Paris during the day by another aircraft, which traveled without passengers from Seoul to Beijing.

“Crews are often trained in this kind of situation,” and the incident is part of the “scenarios they are considering,” said an Air France spokesman.

“Maintenance work will be carried out on the aircraft before it is put back into service,” the French carrier added.