Air Koryo Plane Makes Emergency Landing In China

A North Korean Air Koryo plane made an emergency landing in China's northeastern city of Shenyang on Friday after smoke appeared in the cabin, airport authorities and the official Xinhua news agency said.

The plane, belonging to North Korea's national carrier, was flying to Beijing from Pyongyang when it made a forced landing because of smoke in the cabin, the airport said in a short statement.

The aircraft made a safe emergency landing, and "nothing abnormal" was found in its condition, although an investigation was underway, it added.

Xinhua, which had initially reported a fire, cited a passenger as saying the smoke appeared about 30 minutes after takeoff, and flight crew told passengers not to panic as the plane landed.

"Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin," Xinhua said, adding that the plane landed 10 minutes later with no one on board injured.

Fire trucks were dispatched and the aircraft was "smoking" when ground staff examined it, but no obvious fire was spotted, the passenger told the agency, which added that rain in Shenyang at the time of the landing may have averted a fire.

An airline staff member at Pyongyang airport told Xinhua the plane had suffered a "malfunction," but more investigations were needed to determine what happened.

Independent ratings website Skytrax lists Air Koryo as the world's only 1-star airline for poor quality standards, though it does not measure safety.

Few North Koreans are allowed to travel outside their isolated country.

The North Korean state-owned airline uses mainly Russian-built Tupolev aircraft on international flights but older, Soviet-era aircraft are used within the country.

The aircraft, operating flight JS 151, was a Tupolev TU204-300, plane tracking website flightradar24 showed.