Close to 300 passengers on an Air China flight who unexpectedly spent the night in Winnipeg will be picked up this afternoon.

A mechanical issue forced the plane carrying about 300 people to make an emergency landing at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport Saturday night.

A ‘rescue plane’ is scheduled to arrive at the airport around 4:30 p.m., Winnipeg Airport Authority spokesperson Scott Marohn said.

The flight was headed from Washington D.C. to Beijing.

Airport spokesperson Pascal Belanger said the mechanical issue occurred when the Boeing 777-300 was north of Winnipeg. The plane made it’s landing safely at 8:26 p.m. Saturday. No one was injured.

“So far, it seems like it has been handled like many other diversion of the type that we’ve handled,” said Belanger on Saturday. “We will find out (what occurred) as they actually start to deal with the aircraft.”

Passengers on the plane spent the night in five different hotels near the airport and downtown. Shuttles will pick them up at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday and take them to a special check-in location.

The plane is scheduled to leave at 7 p.m.

The WAA said maintenance was needed on the original plane before it can fly to Bejing.