HONG KONG - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 271 people was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Hong Kong on Monday after a technical fault involving an onboard generator, the airline said.

The incident came as 26 countries search remote waters off western Australia for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8.

Flight MH066 departed from Kuala Lumpur at 11:37 p.m. local time bound for Seoul's Incheon airport. The flight was diverted to Hong Kong's international airport where it landed safely at around 3 a.m. local time, the airline said.

Malaysia Airlines said the Airbus A330-300 jet was diverted because of an inoperative generator. There was no loss of power because an auxiliary generator took over.

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong airport said it was not classified as an emergency landing, although emergency services were put on standby.