KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — The Incheon-bound Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight that was diverted to Hong Kong early this morning was facing “technical issues” and not any serious safety problem, the airlines’ chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said today.

He said the decision to divert the plane from its planned route was a precautionary measure.

“This was not a safety issue per se, it was a technical issue,” he said when asked to clarify why the plane was diverted at the daily press conference to update on the status of the MH370 search and rescue operation.

Earlier this morning, flight MH066 from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon, South Korea, was diverted to the Hong Kong International Airport due to an inoperative aircraft generator.

MAS in a statement said that the generator, which supplies normal electrical power to the A330-300 aircraft, “had some failure”.

An auxiliary power unit, however, kicked in as the plane diverted to Hong Kong “for rectification” and landed safely.

MAS Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (centre) the Incheon-bound Malaysia Airlines flight that was diverted to Hong Kong early this morning was facing 'technical issues' and not a serious safety problem. — Picture by Choo Choy May

The return flight from Incheon to Kuala Lumpur was also cancelled, and passengers on both flights were transferred to other carriers.

On Friday’s incident in Kathmandu, Nepal, Jauhari denied that the pilot of the plane did not immediately notify air traffic control at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) when a flock of birds broke a landing light on the plane as it attempted to land.

“The pilot informed the air traffic control and filed a report after landing,” he said denying claims that airport authorities were only notified of the incident by the pilot of a Jet Airways plane that landed minutes after flight MH114.

Jauhari also clarified that the birds had broken a landing light and not the windscreen of the plane, as previously reported.