A passenger on a Melbourne-bound flight which had to make an emergency landing after an engine caught fire has praised the pilots for managing a safe descent and ensuring no-one was injured.
Virgin Airlines Flight VA 148 from Queenstown in New Zealand was diverted to Invercargill on Monday evening after one of its engines caught fire shortly after take-off.
The airline said a bird strike likely caused the fire, with passengers reporting a series of loud bangs and flashes coming from the engine almost immediately after the plane’s wheels left the tarmac.
Shocked witnesses on the ground recorded video of the plane flying over Queenstown with flames erupting from its left engine.
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Michael Hayward was onboard the flight and sitting just behind the wing when it first caught fire.
He told ABC News Breakfast’s Michael Rowland there were initially “a few cries of panic” after the passengers first realised what had happened.
“The plane starts taking off, wheels leave the runway, next thing you know — bang! Flashes come out of the side, right in the engine,” Mr Hayward said.
“We’ve flown into [a group of birds], so all you hear is ‘boom, boom, boom’.
“Bright orange lights [start] filling up the cabin, and for the next 40 seconds there are just flames coming out of the engine. Not quite what you want on an aeroplane.”
He said passengers calmed quickly after the engine was turned off and it became clear the pilots had things under control.
“I mean, within seconds of leaving the ground your aeroplane’s spitting flames out the engine — it’s out of the ordinary, it’s unusual, and at this point it’s also out of your control. So quite the dramatic take-off.”
Mr Hayward praised the pilots’ “amazing” efforts for shutting the engine down quickly and making a safe landing with only one engine — which he said wasn’t as great as having two, but was better than none.
None of the plane’s 67 passengers or six crew were injured in the incident, and Virgin arranged accommodation for them in Invercargill overnight before they were bussed back to Queenstown on Tuesday morning for replacement flights.
New Zealand’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, says bird strikes occur at a rate of about four in every 10,000 flights, with the consequences varying in severity depending on where aircraft are hit.
Boeing has been at the centre of a number of aviation safety incidents this year, including a door blowing off a plane mid-flight and a 737 MAX 8 dropping at a rate of about 4,400 feet a minute near Hawaii.