MOSCOW, July 4. /TASS/. A passenger plane en route from Istanbul to Mineralnye Vody, a city in southern Russia, declared an emergency shortly after takeoff and then turned back, according to online global flight tracking services.

According to Flightradar24, the aircraft departed from Istanbul Airport and climbed to an altitude of nearly 10,000 meters over the Black Sea while in Turkish airspace. It then began descending, turned around, and declared an emergency, the tracking service showed. The aircraft is currently heading back to Istanbul Airport at an altitude of about 3,000 meters.

Earlier, a source in air traffic control circles told TASS that the plane was returning to Istanbul because of possible technical problems on board. The source did not specify the nature of the suspected malfunction.