Virgin Australia plane engine catches fire, makes emergency landing at New Zealand International | News

One of the engines sputtered intermittently. airplane Departing from Virgin Australia Forced to make an emergency landing In an incident in New Zealand on Monday night No one was injured.

The aircraft is Boeing 737-800 There were 67 passengers and 6 crew members on boardtook off from Queenstown Airport on the South Island, and while still in the air, one of the engines began to have problems.

In videos recorded from inside and outside the device posted by witnesses, you can see how it intermittently spews flames from the right side of the plane.

“There was a loud noise from one of the plane’s engines and then flames came out… the plane continued to rise and the noise and the flames stopped,” Nick Lambert, one of the witnesses who saw the plane take off from the mainland, told the New Zealand Herald.

Inside the plane, passenger Michael Hayward told the same media outlet he heard It suddenly “exploded” a few seconds after takeoff.

“flame As it tried to restart, it began shooting from the right engine.Heyward described the scene as initially panicking, which began to subside as the flames were extinguished.

The pilot decided to abort the flight and fly to Melbourne, making an emergency landing at Invercargill Airport, about 180 kilometres south of the departure point.

Airport authorities deployed emergency response teams on the tarmac Caring for passengers, but no one was injured, Virgin Australia Chief Operating Officer Stuart Argus reported this in a statement.

“The pilot was fantastic flying single engine, the crew did a fantastic job and the ground handling team at Invercargill Airport helped us recover quickly,” the passenger said, according to New Zealand newspapers on Tuesday.

Virgin Australia executives said the incident was likely caused by the plane striking a bird shortly after takeoff.

Queenstown Airport chief executive Glen Sowry backed the theory, explaining his airport had recorded a number of incidents involving the small birds in recent weeks.

The Civil Aviation Authority and New Zealand’s Air Transport Investigation Commission have launched investigations to determine the cause of the incident. (I)