Cockpit coffee spill forces commercial jet to make emergency landing

Air Mauritius new Airbus A330-900neo aircraft seen on final approach landing at London Heathrow International Airport LHR EGLL in England, UK during a cloudy summer morning with visible wingtip vortices, wing vortex line on 23 August 2019. The brand new wide-body airplane A330neo is new generation, modern with advanced technology airliner, evolved from the A330 series and is flying since June 2019, it has the name Chagos Archipelago, registration 3B-NBV and has 2x RR Trent 7000 -72 jet engines. Air Mauritius MAU MK is the flag carrier airline of Republic of Mauritius and is based at Port Louis, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport MRU FIMP that connects to the British capital. The airline is a member of Vanilla Alliance aviation alliance (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Air Mauritius new Airbus A330-900neo aircraft seen on final approach landing at London Heathrow International Airport LHR EGLL in England, UK during a cloudy summer morning with visible wingtip vortices, wing vortex line on 23 August 2019. The brand new wide-body airplane A330neo is new generation, modern with advanced technology airliner, evolved from the A330 series and is flying since June 2019, it has the name Chagos Archipelago, registration 3B-NBV and has 2x RR Trent 7000 -72 jet engines. Air Mauritius MAU MK is the flag carrier airline of Republic of Mauritius and is based at Port Louis, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport MRU FIMP that connects to the British capital. The airline is a member of Vanilla Alliance aviation alliance (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

LONDON,  (Reuters) – A commercial flight with 326 people on board was forced to make an emergency landing when hot coffee was accidentally spilled over the cockpit control panel over the Atlantic ocean, according to a report on Thursday.

The Airbus A330-243 flying to Cancun, Mexico, from Frankfurt, landed at Shannon in Ireland.

With the hot liquid causing a strong electrical burning smell and smoke rising from the panel, the captain decided to divert, the report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

The incident happened after a pilot put his coffee cup without a lid on a tray table rather than in a cup holder, the report said.

There were no injuries in the incident, which happened in February.

The AAIB did not identify the airline but said it had since changed procedures to ensure that cup lids are provided for flights on all routes, and that crews are reminded of the need to use them.