KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was forced to change aircraft for a Hong Kong-bound flight shortly before take-off this morning over technical issues, delaying departure by more than an hour.

The national carrier said that the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft was initially scheduled to depart for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 9.15am and arrive Hong Kong at 1.00pm, departed at 10.55am “due to change of aircraft”.

“As safety of its passengers is of utmost priority to the airline, the change of aircraft was necessary to facilitate technical [rectification] work and to avoid further delay,” MAS media relations manager Khairunnisak Dzun Nurin said in a statement today,

Checks on the flight’s status showed passengers were then transferred to a later flight that departed at 10.34am.

MAS did not elaborate on the nature of the issue.

The flag carrier is under the microscope after a Beijing-bound flight, MH370, disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.

Last Friday, a MAS plane suffered damage when it hit a flock of ducks in Nepal.

On Monday, another of the flag carrier’s plane was diverted from its flight South Korea to Hong Kong after an onboard power generator malfunctioned.