An Air France plane with over 500 passengers on board has been forced to turn around over Niger and return to the Ivory Coast after one of its engines failed.

The plane, an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, was en route from Abidjan to Paris when it suddenly began to shake and pitch.

”I saw a fireball for a few seconds and then there was a loud bang on the left side of the plane. The plane started to bank, everything shook and people started to panic. The pilot came out and said, ’We’ve lost an engine, we’re returning to Abidjan,’” says a Bloomberg News journalist who was on board.

The plane was able to land in Abidjan without any problems. Air France-KLM confirmed the incident and said the crew is trained to cope with the loss of an engine.

Source: TT