Turkish Airlines Plane Lands in Johannesburg After Problem

(Bloomberg) -- A Turkish Airlines flight from Cape Town to Istanbul landed in Johannesburg after being diverted because of an unspecified problem, Airports Company of South Africa said.

Flight data showed that the Airbus jet had been in a holding pattern for some time after taking off.

“After our A330-type airplane reached the proper weight for landing, a safe landing was achieved,” Turkish Airlines said in a statement. “Our plane’s technical condition is being investigated.

While the airline didn’t say what the technical issue was, eNCA, a South African broadcaster, reported today that the plane’s landing gear didn’t retract after take off.

Flight data shows that the plane is an Airbus A330-343, flight number TK45. It could be seen circling over waters west of Cape Town at an altitude of around 20,000 feet for some time after taking off, according to flight tracking data on flightradar24.com. It took off at 6 p.m. local time and landed just over four hours later. The flight to Johannesburg from Cape Town is normally two hours.

Johannesburg is a larger airport than Cape Town and the main site of the South African Airways technical department. Airbus declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Vecchiatto in Cape Town at pvecchiatto@bloomberg.net;Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Antony Sguazzin, Benjamin Harvey

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