Causing a blip of anxiety in the wake of the missing plane search, a Malaysia Airlines jet's landing gear malfunctioned during takeoff Sunday, causing it to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, the airline said.
Flight MH192 was scheduled to reach Bangalore, India at 11:35 p.m. Sunday (2:05 p.m. ET), but was forced to return to Kuala Lumpur and made an emergency landing at 1:56 a.m. (1:56 p.m. ET on Sunday), the airline said in a statement.
Seven crew members and 159 passengers about the Boeing-777 evacuated the plane safely, according to the statement.
Malaysia Airlines tweeted "Alhamdulillah" — meaning "praise God" with the announcement that the plane had landed safely.
Malaysia Airlines has come under harsh criticism for the way they have handled relatives of the 227 passengers aboard MH370, which went missing on March 8.
A U.S. Navy underwater drone scanning the ocean floor for the jet could finish searching a circular area with a radius of 6 miles within the week, Australian officials said Saturday.
Once the underwater vehicle scours the entire area, Australia may decide to scale back the search, Australia's ambassador to the United States, Kim Beazley said on CNN Sunday.
Beazley said all search countries would be consulted before any alterations are made to the search plan.
