India-bound Malaysia Airlines flight forced to turn back

A Malaysia Airlines flight which departed from Kuala Lumpur for India’s Hyderabad early Sunday made an air turn-back due to an auto-pilot defect, the company said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur. The statement denied the claims circulating in social media that the MH198 plane was on fire, saying the defect had no impact on the US-made aircraft or its passengers. ‘However, as a precautionary measure, the operating captain decided to turn back,’ it added. The Hyderabad-bound Malaysian Airlines Flight MH198 landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia at 2:01am on Sunday. The passengers and crew disembarked safely and were accommodated at nearby hotels. According to the statement, Flight MH198 had been rescheduled to operate as MH198D to depart from Kuala Lumpur later in the day, according to Xinhua.