BA London-Beijing flight makes emergency landing in Siberia

MOSCOW - A British Airways Boeing 747 flying from London to Beijing on Wednesday made a successful emergency landing at Irkutsk airport in Siberia due to technical problems, Russian officials said.

The 270 passengers and 16 crew have been taken to hotels in central Irkutsk, an airport official told the Interfax news agency. As they do not have Russian visas, they did not go through passport control and will not be able to leave the hotel.

"The passengers' passports have been taken and they have been given copies," the official said, adding that it was not clear how much longer they would be stranded in the city.

The flight information on British Airways' website confirmed the plane had made a stopover in Irkutsk and said the flight would be taking off again for Beijing at 3:00 pm (0400 GMT) on Thursday.

Interfax said that according to initial information, the plane encountered problems with its navigational systems. British Airways engineers were expected to arrive later to inspect the plane.