A British Airways plane bound for London with 155 passengers and 14 crew on board made an emergency landing in northern Nigeria on Saturday after smoke was detected in the cockpit, the airline said. The pilot of flight BA 82, which originated in Nigeria's capital Abuja, safely landed the Boeing 777 aircraft in Kano.

"The flight crew detected smoke in the cockpit and took the decision to divert as a precaution," British Airways said yesterday.

"We apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused."

Smoke was first detected in the cockpit early on Saturday during a flight from London to Abuja. BA said its engineers inspected the plane and believed the problem had been fixed.

About an hour after the plane departed from Abuja, the crew again reported smoke in the cockpit and diverted to Kano.

A BA official said the passengers will be flown to London on another flight as quickly as possible.

Africa's most populous country suffered a series of air disasters in 2005 and 2006 which killed hundreds of people, including scores of schoolchildren.

Experts say many Nigerian airports do not have effective navigational, surveillance or communication equipment, while the emergency services lack proper search and rescue abilities.