Kathmandu: Passengers aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu were evacuated on Monday after smoke was detected in the aircraft’s landing gear while taxiing, the airline said.

According to Anadolu Agency, the Airbus A330 aircraft, registered TC-JNP and operating flight TK726, landed normally at Tribhuvan International Airport before smoke was observed from the landing gear while the plane was taxiing, as stated by Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun.

The evacuation was carried out as a precaution under instructions from airport tower authorities, Ustun said in a statement through US social media company X. ‘After our Airbus A330 aircraft operating the Istanbul-Kathmandu TK726 flight landed normally on the runway, smoke was observed in the landing gear while taxiing,’ he said.

Continuing, Ustun noted, ‘In line with the instructions of tower teams, a passenger evacuation was carried out precautionarily by deploying the emergency slides. The evacuation process was completed successfully and no injuries were reported.’

He further mentioned that technical inspections of the aircraft had been launched by authorized teams. ‘Initial examinations suggest the smoke was caused by a technical malfunction in a hydraulic pipe,’ Ustun explained.

In response to the incident, the airline also announced that an additional flight had been scheduled for the return leg.