A Turkish Airlines aircraft flying from Kathmandu to Istanbul was diverted to Kolkata on Tuesday after a fire was reported in one of its engines during the flight.

Airport authorities at Kolkata declared a complete emergency when the incident occurred because they needed to ensure passenger safety.

The flight, operating as THY727, was an Airbus A330-300 aircraft which took off from Kathmandu, Nepal, and flew to Istanbul, Turkey. The pilots discovered a problem with the right engine at mid-air cruising altitude which they reported to be on fire.

The pilots issued a PAN-PAN emergency call at 1:38 PM IST. The PAN-PAN call serves to alert others about urgent situations that need immediate attention but do not pose direct threats to human life. The crew asked for permission to land the plane at the closest operational airport which turned out to be Kolkata (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport).