An Air Canada flight made an emergency landing in Madrid on Monday following technical problems just hours after taking off from the city's Barajas airport, Spanish officials said. "Air Canada flight AC837 flying from Madrid to Toronto had an engine problem shortly after taking off. A tyre also blew out on takeoff, one of 10 on this model of plane," the airline said in a statement to AFP. "The plane chose to turn around and go back to Madrid," it said, saying the plane was circling the skies "to burn off fuel to reduce weight before landing."

It said the plane, which had 128 passengers on board, was a Boeing 767-300 that was designed to be able to function on one engine, but that an emergency had been declared "to ensure priority landing".

The plane eventually touched down just after 7 pm (1815 GMT) "without incident", Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos said on Twitter. Spain's defence ministry had earlier told AFP that an F-18 had been scrambled to check on the state of the plane's landing gear and the emergency services had deployed to the airport as a "preventative measure". According to the airport's website, Air Canada flight AC837 took off at 2:33 pm (1333 GMT), bound for Toronto.