Virgin Australia plane lands safely in New Zealand after fire shuts down an engine

WELLINGTON: A passenger plane landed safely at a New Zealand airport on Monday (Jun 17) after a fire shut down one of its engines, the country's fire service said.

The Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 jet bound for Melbourne, Australia, with 67 passengers and six crew members on board landed in the New Zealand city of Invercargill after the fire forced a diversion.

The incident may have resulted from "a possible bird strike", the airline's chief operations officer Stuart Aggs said in an emailed statement.

Flames were seen shortly after the plane took off from Queenstown Airport. No further information about what happened at the time of the incident was known, said Catherine Nind, an airport spokesperson.

"At this time, we are not aware of any physical injuries to guests or crew," Aggs said, adding that passengers on board the flight – VA148 – would be accommodated in Invercargill overnight and that new flights would be arranged for them.

Aggs also expressed Virgin Australia's thanks to Invercargill Airport staff, local Air New Zealand crew, the flight's cabin crew and emergency services for supporting the response to the incident.

A passenger on board the flight reported seeing flames coming from an engine and hearing a loud "bang" after it took off at about 6pm.

The passenger, Michael Hayward, said that he heard the sound about 10 seconds after take off, the New Zealand Herald reported.

"Flames started to shoot out the right-hand engine as it tried to restart itself," he told the daily. 

"Initially after the bang, there was some panic and crying, but this very quickly stopped as people comforted each other, and within minutes, (there was) laughter as people joked about how they (would) get home without flying – they'll never go on a plane again," Hayward said.

Hayward said that 20 minutes after seeing the flames and hearing the noise, the pilot told passengers over the plane's public address system that a flock of birds had been spotted and "ingested into the engine".

He added that the cabin crew went around the plane to offer reassurance to every passenger as soon as they could.

He said that the pilots "were excellent" and that the cabin crew "did a great job" and also commended the ground team at Invercargill Airport.

The New Zealand Herald reported a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson as saying that the engine was shut down following the incident and that the flight's diversion to Invercargill was "uneventful".

Queenstown, with a population of 53,000, is a popular tourist destination on New Zealand's South Island famous for skiing, adventure tourism and alpine vistas.

The rate of birds striking planes at New Zealand's airports is about four in every 10,000 aircraft movements, the country's aviation regulator said on its website.

The consequences vary in severity depending on where the aircraft is hit, the size of the birds and the pilot's reaction, the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand said.