A Russian ATR-42 turboprop passenger plane made an emergency landing early Tuesday at Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine without casualties, local authorities said.

The UTair airline-operated plane, en route from Donetsk to Moscow, encountered a technical problem shortly after taking off, and made a safe emergency landing at 6.30 a.m. local time (0330 GMT), the Donetsk airport press service said.

Passengers would fly to Moscow by another plane, it said.

On mid-February, a plane bound for Donetsk from the southern city of Odessa with 52 people aboard crashed while landing at Donetsk airport, killing five people.