Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Bangladesh makes emergency landing

Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Bangladesh makes emergency landing

All passengers safe after plane bound for Bangladesh is forced to land due to faulty smoke detector in cargo cabin.

April 26, 2010 7:55 by Ben Flanagan

An Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Bangladesh was forced to make an emergency landing in Pakistan on Sunday due to a faulty smoke detector in its cargo section.

Flight G9521, bound for Chittagong, landed at Karachi airport approximately two hours after takeoff after the pilot alerted Pakistan air traffic authorities.

The incident was blamed on a “smoke detector fault”, the airline said in a statement. A safety check by officials in Karachi found no evidence of a fire. All 165 passengers on the flight are safe.

“This diversion was carried out in line with international best practice safety standards, and the aircraft was held briefly at Karachi Airport to carry out a regular safety check and then shortly departed to Chittagong.”

The incident occured on the same day that an Emirates plane suddenly dropped 200 feet in the air amid extreme turbulence, injuring 20 passengers onboard the flight between Dubai and Kochi, India.