A Cathay Pacific Airways Boeing 747-400 aircraft bound for Paris encountered an engine problem shortly after take off on 1 April.

The aircraft departed from Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at 23:45 on 1 April, and returned to the airport, landing without incident at 01:15 on 2 April.

"The aircraft departed fine but shortly after [becoming] airborne, the pilot detected a fault in engine number three," an airline spokesman said when contacted.

The pilot made the decision to return the aircraft to HKIA as a safety precaution.

The aircraft, registration B-HOW, had its airframe manufactured in 1991, and uses RB211-524H engines from Rolls-Royce. It is now undergoing checks.

"The engineers are still looking into the possible causes and we're unable to say when the aircraft will resume operations," says the spokesman.

The 348 passengers and 21 crew on board did not suffer any injuries.