An Air France flight declared an emergency Thursday and ended up diverting to another airport because of an overheating seat.
Flight 54 was traveling from Paris to Washington, D.C. when it was diverted to Montreal.
The Boeing 777 landed safely in Montreal.
Update EMERGENCY DIVERSION #AF54 Pilot has declared a MAYDAY Now on final approach #Montreal Rwy 24R. Reported overheating business seat— Tom Podolec CTV News (@TomPodolec) January 1, 2015
Breaking: Air France #AF54 is diverting to Montreal after declaring an emergency. pic.twitter.com/0tMHCEU8CM— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) January 1, 2015
Update EMERGENCY DIVERSION #AF54 diverting to #Montreal. Reported "business seat overheating" Landing 24R shortly pic.twitter.com/sLeOqFSlQh— Tom Podolec CTV News (@TomPodolec) January 1, 2015
A passenger on the plane tweeted that he did not see or smell any fire. He also said the first class cabin on the plane was empty.
Firefighters met the flight at the airport in Montreal.
UPDATE EMERGENCY Air France #AF54 just landed safely to Montreal YUL via @suGarbOk pic.twitter.com/ZpAdZEGrfk— AirLive.net (@airlivenet) January 1, 2015
"We took every measure to ensure that the aircraft could land safely and it did so a few minutes ago," a Montreal airport spokesperson told CTV Montreal at about 4 p.m. local time.
"Nobody is injured as far as we know."
Air France described the issue as a "minor technical problem" on Twitter.
On board #AF54 @airfrance from CDG-IAD, still in Montreal after Emergency landing. Refueling now @AirlineFlyer pic.twitter.com/VmWIJEFZjj— Arun K (@arunkandasamy) January 1, 2015
While the issue Thursday appears to have been with a first class seat, the 777 has had problems with business seats before, according to Runway Girl Network.
On Dec. 8, 2013, on a flight from Atlanta to Paris, a crew member smelled fire and found flames under seat 4F in business class on the 777 aircraft.
The crew member "later explained that he had extinguished the fire by reflex by throwing water onto the flames. A cabin crew member checked that the fire did not start again and the flight continued without further incident,” the French aviation safety bureau stated in a report.
Air France Flt #AF54 diverted with a overheating business seat, this article courtesy of @RunwayGirl is interesting http://t.co/zNm4ulzZDL— Michael Kelly (@Michaelkelly707) January 1, 2015
The bureau found the cause of the fire to be a crushed lithium battery in the seat mechanism.
Flight 54 was refueling in Montreal before continuing to D.C.