Sat August 23, 2003 12:49 PM ET VIENNA (Reuters) - A Lufthansa plane en route to Milan from Munich made an emergency landing at Innsbruck airport in western Austria Saturday after a fire broke out in the cabin, the German national carrier said. Flight attendants immediately extinguished the fire and none of the 84 passengers was injured. "There was no fire in the aircraft when it landed, as has been reported," a Lufthansa spokeswoman told Reuters in Berlin. "A fire broke out in the cabin and was extinguished by the crew. No one was injured. As a security precaution, the plane made a landing in Innsbruck," she added. The cause of the fire was not immediately known but Austrian state television ORF said it began in an overhead luggage slot in the passenger cabin. Passengers were being attended to by emergency services in Innsbruck while the airline arranged for a substitute aircraft to take them to Milan. *** My remarks to the story: Innsbruck is a very demanding airport embedded in a valley in the eastern alps. Foreign crews normally need a special qualification to land there. Weather was plenty VMC AFAIK and the crew pretty much had no other choice than to divert to Innsbruck. The aircraft has for the been confisicated by the authorities in order to investigate the source and the reason for the fire. According an Austrian newspaper article I read, the aircraft was operating a Munich to Milano flight (opposite to the Reuters article). As passengers stated, flames had been clearly visible coming from cabin panels near the luggage overhead storage bins. The control tower had been alerted about the situation 15 minutes before the actual landing, and about 100 people emergency crew awaited the aircraft to intervene in case required. Aircraft involved was an AVRO RJ-85. PAX-number was quoted as 84. Pretty much 100 percent load factor. Fortunately a situation with all the potential for a major aviation disaster could be averted. Grettings from Vienna, Manfred (ATCO/TWR/LOWW)