A passenger plane has landed after being diverted to Invercargill Airport this evening, after fire was reportedly spotted coming from an engine.
The Virgin Australia flight left from Queenstown, originally bound for Melbourne, before being seen circling on FlightRadar off the coast of Bluff.
Reports on the ground from eyewitnesses say they heard loud noises from the plane and saw an engine shooting flames. The plane in question is a Boeing 737-8FE.
Virgin Australia Chief Operations Officer Stuart Aggs gave a statement this evening: "Virgin Australia flight VA148 from Queenstown to Melbourne diverted to Invercargill Airport and landed safely following a possible bird strike on take-off this evening.
"The aircraft has been met by emergency services at Invercargill Airport. The safety of our guests and crew is our highest priority."
Emergency services meet the plane at Invercargill Airport. (Source: 1News)
IT worker Eden Brackstone took the footage of the plane embedded at the top of this article. He lives about two kilometres away from Queenstown Airport and raced outside with his phone when he heard a bang over his house.
“I thought it was either an extremely loud car or subwoofer,” he told 1News.
“It was one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard in this neighbourhood, echoing off of the hills which would have helped.”
Queenstown Airport issued the following statement on the incident: "The information we can share at this stage is that Virgin Australia flight VA 148 departed Queenstown Airport at 5.59pm, bound for Melbourne.
"It experienced an issue just after take-off and has been diverted to Invercargill Airport.
"We will share another update when we have more information."
A person who claimed to be on board the flight posted an image to X stating the plane had hit several birds on takeoff causing the engine fire.
In a reply on the above post just after 7pm, the person on board the flight said the captain confirmed it was a bird strike and the passengers were sitting on the plane on the tarmac waiting to disembark.
The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand said it is aware of the incident involving a Virgin Australia aircraft which took off from Queenstown and diverted to Invercargill.
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"It was unofficially reported that there was an engine fire on climb-out as a result of a suspected bird strike. At 18:50 the aircraft landed safely in Invercargill. It’s currently too early for us to comment on the specifics and in the coming days we will work to understand the situation and next steps."
More to come.
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