An Alitalia Boeing 777-200, performing flight from Rome Fiumicino (Italy) to Tokyo Narita (Japan) with 293 people on board, was enroute when the crew needed to shut the left hand engine down.

The aircraft drifted down and diverted to Sapporo (Japan), for a safe landing about 80 minutes later.

Japan’s Ministry of Transport reported the aircraft was overhead Russia when the crew reported they had to shut the left hand engine down and changed their destination to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport. The passengers were rebooked onto domestic flights from Sapporo to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.