BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- An airlines confirmed that a pilot with more than 30 years of experience was forced to turn back minutes before landing in Paris because he was not qualified to land in fog, according to media reports Friday.

    The passenger plane pilot of British Flybe Airline balked at landing at the foggy Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and turned back to Cardiff after announcing "I am not qualified to land the plane" over the address system.

    A spokeswoman for Flybe said the pilot was "an experienced aviator with more than 30 years commercial aviation experience flying a number of different passenger aircraft types."

    "He has relatively recently transferred his 'type-rating' from a Bombardier Q300 to a Bombardier Q400 and has not yet completed the requisite low-visibility training to complete a landing in conditions such as the dense fog experienced in Paris Charles de Gaulle," she said.

    "The captain therefore quite correctly turned the aircraft around and returned to Cardiff; a decision which the company stands by 100 percent."

    The Civil Aviation Authority described the incident as "quite unusual but probably not unheard of."

    "I guess he thought when he initially took off that conditions would be suitable for him to land," a spokesman said.

    "There are different classifications of aircraft and when an aircraft is updated, pilots who have flown an older version have to completely retrain."

    (Agencies)