An plane bound for London had to return to the Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday, after smoke was reported in the cockpit.

The City’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, says the British Airways A350 plane was about two hours into its journey from the city when it had to make the u-turn.

An emergency response was executed, with fire and rescue services on standby for when the plane landed at 22:00 that night.

Smith’s Executive Support Officer, Eckardt Winks, said a phase two emergency response was implemented, which means internal functions at the airport could attend to the incident, with the support of external services.

“When called upon, we immediately placed 4 of our appliances on standby, to match the 4 appliances of the Airports Company SA’s appliances, to await the arrival of the Airbus,” explained Winks.

Though not confirmed, it’s believed the aircraft had a fuel leak.

All on board the plane were safely disembarked.

“The plane landed safely and was first left on the run way to establish safety, before being towed to a parking for the passengers to disembark. Our services then stood down,” said Winks.

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This article has been updated with additional information.