Air France flight makes emergency landing in Russia

An Air France flight en route to Paris from Tokyo was forced to make an emergency landing in eastern Russia on Tuesday following engine problems, officials told AFP.

“All 275 passengers and 17 members of crew are fine,” said Natalya Tsvetkova, a spokewoman at the airport in Khabarovsk, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of Vladivostok.

The Boeing 777 is still on the ground at the airport and a technical team is in the process of inspecting it, she added.

The passengers were kept on board the Tokyo-Paris flight while tests were carried out on the engine and the airline studied ways of getting the travellers to the French capital, Air France said.