An Airbus 320 aircraft belonging to the Onur Air airline company (Turkey), which was flying from Odessa to Istanbul, was forced to return to the Odessa airport on September 2 because of a technical malfunction, the Turkish news agency Ikhlas reports.
"The pilot of the aircraft contacted the control tower at the Odessa airport for an emergency landing because of a malfunction, after which panic momentarily broke out among the passengers of the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely at the Odessa airport and its passengers were taken to the terminal. The passengers were later transferred to another airliner, on which they arrived in Istanbul with a seven-hour delay," the report states.
One of the passengers, Nihat Tellioglu, said upon arrival at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, "There was a problem during the take-off of the aircraft from the Odessa airport. There was a second problem 20 minutes later, when the engine broke down. We later returned to the Odessa airport, where we waited for about six hours. We arrived in Istanbul on another aircraft."
According to the display at the Odessa airport, the aircraft departed at 12:40 local time and the reserve aircraft departed for Istanbul at 19:20.
The Odessa airport is not commenting on the incident.
