diff --git a/storage/federated/ha_federated.cc b/storage/federated/ha_federated.cc
index 21c0b7b178d..64d5af446d8 100644
--- a/storage/federated/ha_federated.cc
+++ b/storage/federated/ha_federated.cc
@@ -1651,6 +1651,15 @@ int ha_federated::close(void)
   mysql_close(mysql);
   mysql= NULL;
 
+  /*
+    mysql_close() might return an error if a remote server's gone
+    for some reason. If that happens while removing a table from
+    the table cache, the error will be propagated to a client even
+    if the original query was not issued against the FEDERATED table.
+    So, don't propagate errors from mysql_close().
+  */
+  table->in_use->clear_error();
+
   DBUG_RETURN(free_share(share));
 }