Updated

Officials say a Northwest Airlines plane was forced to turn around and land back at the Baton Rogue, La., airport after a small maintenance door on the bottom of the aircraft opened.

Officials say Northwest Airlines Flight 2271 with 49 people aboard circled near the Baton Rouge Metro Airport Monday morning to burn off fuel so it could make an emergency landing.

Airport spokesman Jim Caldwell said the door was ajar and a light came on, so the plane did an about-face and landed without a problem.

The door on the belly of the plane is used by maintenance people to get to the navigation and other equipment.

The plane was headed to Memphis and resumed its trip after about an hour.