'Garuda' lands in Colombo

'Garuda' lands in Colombo

COLOMBO (Agencies): An Indonesian Airbus A-330 carrying haj pilgrims on their way to Saudi Arabia made an emergency landing after reporting engine trouble.

Garuda Indonesia flight GA6315, was believed to be carrying some 310 people on the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, landed safely at Bandaranaike International Airport late Thursday after the pilots shut down an engine, AFP quoted officials here as saying.

They said the passengers, who were on their way from Indonesia to Jeddah, were being transferred to a Boeing-747 flown to Colombo by Garuda Indonesia.

But the departure of the replacement flight here on Friday was also delayed by over two hours because two passengers were late in showing up at the airport from a nearby hotel where they were put up overnight, officials said.