An emergency malfunction in the cabin of an EgyptAir Boeing 737-866 plane caused it to land a few minutes after take-off from Borg el-Arab Airport in Alexandria on Friday.

The plane #MS4413, without passengers, took off from Borg el-Arab International Airport, heading to Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia, to return Umrah pilgrims back home.

Minutes after takeoff, the EgyptAir pilot noticed a malfunction in the plane and immediately issued a distress call in accordance with international laws.

After communicating with the control tower, the pilot returned safely to Borg el-Arab Airport, to carry out the necessary maintenance.

The Director of the Borg al-Arab International Airport, Hussein al-Saeed, stated that the plane was prepared to head to Jeddah Airport without passengers, carrying only the crew designated for flight only.

After the pilot performed the airborne operation and the plane took off, Saeed explained that the airport control tower then received an immediate distress signal – code 7700 requesting to land again.

The airport director explained that the distress call came from the pilot after he discovered a technical malfunction -namely that the cabin pressure was “not right.”

He then landed on the airport ground, where the required maintenance was carried out.

Saeed stated that the plane took off before the technical malfunction was discovered, indicating that what happened is considered an emergency malfunction beyond everyone’s control.

He explained that most of the time, a check is made on a specific thing on the plane according to the pilot’s vision per safety standards.

The pilot’s request to land at the beginning of take-off was the correct decision, Saeed said, especially since if he had refused to land and reached higher distances in the air in the presence of the malfunction, a disaster could have been occurred.

An alternative plane was arranged immediately and took off heading to Jeddah to transport the passengers there, Saeed added, while the same plane returned after performing the required maintenance to Medina.

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