A Cathay Pacific flight to Milan was diverted to Lanzhou after an engine failure. Photo: Nora Tam“We sincerely apologise to our affected customers for the inconvenience caused and appreciate their understanding,” Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific has said to passengers who were aboard the Milan-bound flight that was forced to land in Lanzhou in northwest China.
An engine failure was discovered 4½ hours into the trip.
The airline said flight CX233 took off at 12.55am on Thursday “but was diverted to Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport in accordance with procedures due to the technical failure”.
The flight was supposed to arrive at Italy’s Milano Malpensa Airport at 7.40am local time.
Cathay said it had arranged for another aircraft to fly the passengers from Lanzhou to Milan as soon as possible.
“Safety guides every decision we make. We sincerely apologise to our affected customers for the inconvenience caused and appreciate their understanding,” it said.
The airline did not reply to South China Morning Post’s questions about the number of affected passengers and the cause of the failure.
A source said the cockpit crew noticed a failure in the left engine roughly 4½ hours after take-off and requested a diversion to Lanzhou.
“The ground control asked the crew if it was possible to divert the flight to Chengdu instead, but the crew replied ‘negative’,” the insider said.
He said the flight landed at Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport at 5.35am after the Boeing 777 aircraft jettisoned 55 tonnes of fuel.