Qatar Airways jet makes emergency landing in Istanbul

By Izzet Taskiran

ISTANBUL

A Qatar Airways passenger plane flying from Istanbul to Doha had to make an emergency landing at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on Thursday.

Qatar Airways Flight 240 was forced to make the emergency landing shortly after take-off due to a technical fault in its left engine, an airport official speaking on the condition of anonymity told Anadolu Agency.

According to the airport official, the engine failure was caused by bird striking the aircraft.

After the pilot of the Airbus A300-330 received permission to land, the plane touched down without any further problems, the official said.

* Burcu Arik from Istanbul and Siber Ugurlu from Ankara contributed to this report.