KATHMANDU:  Sita Air's Dornier aircraft made a safe landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Thursday even after the failure in one of its engines, according to TIA officials.

The TIA spokesperson Prem Nath Thakur said that the crew of the DO 228 aircraft had noticed the failure in the engine after it landed at the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla.

Then the crew members decided not to take the passengers, instead called the technical team from Kathmandu for maintenance.

“Then, the crew decided to make an emergency landing at TIA by flying the plane on one engine from Lukla,” Thakur said.

Meanwhile, Sita Air spokesperson Ghanshyam Acharya said, "It was not a passenger flight, but was a ferry flight with technical and management personnel."

Captain DK Shah landed the plane safely at 12:43 pm with seven persons including four technicians and three crew members on board, the Spokesperson said.

“The TIA authority has had an emergency response squad on standby after the crew reported the air traffic control tower about the incident,” he said.

Technicians have been inspecting the grounded aircraft to carry out necessary maintenance.