KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): A Malaysia Airlines A380 plane headed for London was forced to turn back last night after reports of "engine trouble" approximately 1 1/2 hours into the flight.

UK daily The Mirror said MH2, which was bound for London Heathrow, had been flying at about 6,400m when it began experiencing problems.

There were reports of "a strange smell" coming from the engine, and the plane was earlier said to have dumped fuel off the coast of Malaysia.

"We dumped fuel, we went back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), we try again at 1430. No panic, no alarm, all calm," a passenger was said to have tweeted.

The report added that the flight would attempt to take off again for London today.

The flight was originally scheduled to leave Kuala Lumpur at 11.42pm Thursday night and arrive in London at 5.22am today.

On its Twitter account however, MAS said MH2 had been retimed to leave at 2.30pm as flight MH2D.

It apologised for the delay, adding that last night's flight had been diverted "due to technical issues involving the engine".