A Trans-Atlantic flight declared a mid-air emergency causing a U-turn and 18- hour delay because crew couldn’t switch off a coffee machine.
The crew of the Lufthansa Airbus, travelling from Washington to Munich, were forced to declare an emergency after there was the smell of burning from the coffee device.
A spokesperson for the Germany-based airline said the malfunction produced a “strong electrical smell”.
Britain’s Daily Express newspaper said the plane was 70 miles south-west of Sydney when the crew alerted ground control there was an emergency on board due to smoke from a coffee maker, which had overheated and could not be turned off.
According to the aviation information website AeroInside, the Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 said: “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.”
The crew diverted to Boston and landed 70 minutes after the diversion.
The 223 passengers on board the flight landed in Boston at 2.06am local time on September 8, but the incident has only just been revealed.
According to a Lufthansa spokesperson, once the flight was on the ground, technicians inspect the aircraft and confirmed the source of the smell to be an overheated coffee machine.