All 288 people aboard a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 were evacuated safely at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday after smoke was detected coming from the aircraft’s landing gear, in an incident that briefly shut down Nepal’s busiest airport. The flight from Istanbul had just landed when the crew deployed emergency slides as a precautionary measure. No injuries were reported.
An initial account from an airport official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the plane’s right landing gear had caught fire and that emergency crews brought the flames under control. However, Turkish Airlines later stated that there was no fire and that a preliminary investigation indicated the smoke was caused by a malfunction of hydraulic equipment. “The evacuation process was completed successfully and no injuries were reported,” Yahya Üstün, a company official, said in a statement. “An additional flight has been planned for the return, while technical inspections of the aircraft have been initiated by our teams.”
The airport was closed Monday morning but reopened about two hours later after the plane was moved to a safer area. Flights were operating on schedule by Monday afternoon.
Nepal’s challenging geography and weather conditions make aviation risky. The country has experienced multiple deadly plane crashes in recent years. In 2015, a Turkish Airlines jet landing at the same airport in dense fog skidded off a slippery runway, closing the airport for several days. That incident resulted in no injuries and the aircraft was later converted into a museum.