Washington: A Lufthansa flight, carrying 223 passengers, was forced to declare mid-air emergency causing a U-turn due to smoke from a coffee maker that had overheated and could not be turned off.
The Airbus A330-300, which had taken off from Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, was heading for Munich.
The plane LH-415 was 70 miles south-west of Sydney when the crew alerted ground control after a passenger reported there was a burning smell, aviation information website AeroInside said.
The crew diverted to Boston and landed 70 minutes after the diversion at 2:06 AM local time on September 8, but details have just come to light.
A spokesperson for the Germany-based airline said the malfunction produced a "strong electrical smell". "The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Boston for 16 hours, then continued the flight and reached Munich with a delay of 18 hours," it said.
According to a Lufthansa spokesperson, once the flight was on the ground, technicians inspected the aircraft and confirmed the source of the smell to be an overheated coffee machine.
