Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has denied rumours of a fire that allegedly caused flight MH198 last night to Hyderabad, India to turn back.

 

In a statement this morning, MAS said the turnback was "due to an auto-pilot defect".

 

"Claims circulating in social media that the aircraft was on fire was untrue," said MAS.

 

"The defect did not have any impact on the safety of the aircraft or passengers, however as a precautionary measure, the operating captain decided to turn back."

The flight departed Kuala Lumpur to Hyderabad at 10:20 pm and was rerouted back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) where it landed at 2:01 without incident.

According to New Straits Times this morning, the plane circled for around three hours around the Sungkai and Trolak area in Perak reportedly to burn off fuel before landing in KLIA.

"Upon arrival, passengers and crew disembarked safely and was given accommodation at nearby hotels," said MAS.

"MH198 has been rescheduled to operate as MH198D to depart Kuala Lumpur at 12 noon on 14 September and expected to arrive Hyderabad at 01.35pm the same day," it added.

The national carrier called on the public to refrain from "making speculations to avoid discomfort among air travellers".

 

MAS has been dogged by numerous problems thus year, in particular losing two aircraft, MH370 and MH17, in a span of five months.

Three weeks ago, another MAS aircraft was forced to turn back after 50 minutes into its flight to Tokyo.

 

Its trail of misfortune has led to deteriorating financial performance resulting in what some critics called a government bailout in a takeover by Khazanah Nasional.

However Prime Minister Najib Razak denied the bailout, saying the takeover of the billion-ringgit losing company was an " investment ".