An overnight Emirates airline to Colombo was forced to return to Dubai due to a 'technical failure,' the airline said in a statement on Thursday. The flight 'returned to Dubai Airport 20 minutes after it was airborne due to a technical failure. The aircraft landed safely and all passengers disembarked,' an Emirates spokesperson said in the statement. The parent of a passenger aboard the flight told selfnews the aircraft was a Boeing 777, and that its captain told passengers the problem was engine failure. A substitute aircraft took off with all of the passengers early Thursday after a five hour delay, the statement said. 