Commuter plane lands safely after fire in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A plane from a new Malaysian airline was forced to turn back Wednesday on a domestic flight because one of its engines caught fire, the airline said.

Malindo Air said in a statement that the plane landed safely and that no one was hurt.

The scare comes as Malaysia searches for the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines jet that went missing March 8 with 239 on board. Officials have confirmed the plane, en route to Beijing, went down in the southern Indian Ocean, but efforts at locating the plane or any debris from it have failed so far.

Malindo, which was set up one year ago, said the plane was on its way from Subang Airport near Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu on Malaysia's east coast when the aircraft's fire detection system was activated.

The airline said the pilot landed the plane "without any further incident and no one was hurt."

It said the cause of the fire was not known.