An aircraft Boeing 747-400, with 468 passengers and crew, crash landed at Makassar in southern Indonesia, as it manifested engine fire of, announced the Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia.

Garuda flight-1105, bound for Medina, Saudi Arabia, returned to the airport from where it had taken off at 17:15 local time (12:15 Greek time). All passengers are safe.

“The captain made this decision immediately after take-off, taking into account the problems encountered after sparks were observed in one of the engines,” Irfan Setiaputra, the company’s managing director, said in a statement.

The plane was carrying 450 passengers and 18 crew members. Among them were many worshipers going to Saudi Arabia for the hajj, the Muslim multi-day pilgrimage. All of them have been shifted to hotels and will leave later today on another flight, Irfan added.

Videos and photos posted on social media showed the plane’s engine catching fire as it took off.

The aircraft was grounded until the safety check was completed.

The islands of the Indonesian archipelago are highly dependent on air connections. In recent years, however, there have been numerous accidents. In 2021, a Sriwijaya Air Boeing crashed into the Java Sea after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 62 on board. In March the transport ministry announced it was investigating local company Batik Air after two of its pilots fell asleep during a flight.

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