LISBON (AFP) - A Spanish airliner with more than 300 people on board made an emergency landing at Lisbon international airport after the cabin filled with smoke, forcing the airport`s main runway to close for four hours, an airport official said.
The Iberia aircraft, an Airbus A340, was carrying 288 passengers and 14 crew members from Madrid to Mexico City and five people were slightly injured, including one woman who broke her ankle, on leaving the aircraft, an airline spokeswoman told AFP in Madrid.
Earlier a spokesman for airport management company ANA told the Lusa news agency preliminary reports suggested nine people had been injured.
"The fire alarms were ringing and there was a burning smell, everyone ran to launch themselves onto the emergency slides," a passenger told TSF radio in Lisbon.
Iberia has launched a probe to determine what caused the fire alert to go off, the airline`s spokeswoman said, adding no fire could possibly have broken out in the cargo hold.
Passengers were to leave for Mexico on another Iberia plane in the afternoon.
The emergency landing occurred at around 3:15 am (0315 GMT) and the main runway at the airport, Portugal`s busiest, remained closed until the plane could be towed away, ANA spokesman Rui Oliveira told AFP.
The runway closure delayed the take-off of a flight by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose plane was on a stopover in Lisbon on the way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile, by about 90 minutes, he added.
"No commercial flights were affected," he said.
Putin is scheduled to make a short official visit to Portugal Tuesday while on his return to Russia from the two-day meeting in the Chilean capital Santiago.
11/19/2004 - 18:01 GMT - AFP