A Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Bangalore from Kuala Lumpur had to turn back after takeoff on Sunday night as the aircraft’s landing gear on the right-hand side malfunctioned on takeoff. The aircraft landed at 1.56 am Malaysian time and rescue officials were on the runway to handle the situation.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was carrying 166 people on board, including seven crew members, a statement from the airline said. The flight was supposed to arrive at Bangalore at 11.35 pm on Sunday. Relatives of the passengers had been waiting for their arrival at Kempegowda International Airport.
News of the incident spread like wildfire on the microblogging site Twitter after the official Twitter account of Malaysia Airlines @MAS first said, “Flight MH192 that departed from KUL at 10.09 pm bound for Bangalore has made an air turn back towards KUL. More details to follow.”
A statement and another tweet from the airline confirmed that the flight had landed safely. Various theories were being discussed on online forums before the flight landed, but no concrete information was available on the cause of the emergency landing. However, a chart of the flight path being circulated on Twitter showed that the aircraft had circled over the Straits of Malacca for some time before heading to Kuala Lumpur. Other pictures showed shredded tyres, reportedly of the flight.