An aircraft from Hungarian carrier Malev was forced into an emergency landing at Varna airport in 5.25am on May 12, according to Desislava Simeonova, Malev's operational manager for Bulgaria, as reported by Morski Dnevnik.

The plane was scheduled to fly from Varna to Budapest, but the flight had to be abandoned almost immediately after take-off when a technical malfunction was discovered.

Company technicians have reportedly identified the nature of the setback and fixed the aircraft, after which, several hours later, the flight was executed without further complications. Meanwhile the passengers boarded other planes belonging to other carriers and were ferried to Hungary.

On board the Q400 Bombardier were a total of 30 passengers. None are reported injured.

In February 13, 2009, Canadian plane maker Bombardier Inc said the crash of one of its Dash 8 Q400 turboprop aircraft near Buffalo, New York, which killed 50 people, was the first fatal crash involving that type of plane, although it has had some safety problems reported in the past. The aforementioned aircraft is identical to the Malev plane that suffered the setback in Varna.

A spokesman for Bombardier said 220 of the Q400 turboprops have been delivered to 30 airlines around the world, as reported by Reuters.

The Bombardier Dash 8 (DHC-8) is a series of twin-engined, medium range, turboprop airliners. Introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984, they are now produced by Bombardier Aerospace. Since 1996, the aircraft have been known as the Q Series – Q standing for "quiet". More than 1000 Dash 8s of all models have been built and are in service to date.