Crews respond to airplane engine fire at Wellington Airport

Correction: This story originally had the incorrect first name for Mary Longmore.

An airplane has landed at Wellington Airport trailing smoke and fire after an engine fire, but all 40 passengers were safely evacuated.

Dramatic video posted on social media shows the plane arriving, with smoke billowing behind it.

Wow! Amazing video. Engine catches fire on Air New Zealand flight landing in Wellington. Streamed live on Wellington Flights Live! pic.twitter.com/0cV9VNQq5j

— Dan News (@dannews) September 1, 2024

"Just after 4pm this afternoon NZ5366 travelling from Christchurch to Wellington landed safely after smoke was seen coming from the engine," Air New Zealand Head of Flight Operations, Hugh Pearce said in a statement.

"The aircraft was met by emergency services and all passengers have disembarked safely.

Pearce later added that the cause remains under investigation.

"In line with our standard operating procedures, passengers were required to disembark onto the runway while airport emergency services attended to the aircraft. This is a precautionary measure as the safety of our passengers is our highest priority. The cause of the incident is not yet known."

The aircraft has been removed for inspection, he said.

Witness - 'I told them that the engine was on fire'

Mary Longmore was travelling on the plane with her daughter, and said "people were scrambling, terrified".

"There were sparks, but we didn't know what it was, little bits of dust flying past, and then smoke, a lot of smoke, then flames, like flames coming out of the engine, it was just incredibly scary, and yeah, we couldn't really believe it."

She said she told the steward the engine was on fire, and he called the captain.

"They hadn't said anything to us probably because they didn't want to panic people, clearly the steward didn't know because I saw their faces when I told them that the engine was on fire."

Longmore believed she and her daughter were the first to see the flames.

"We were sitting literally right next to it so the flames were just a few inches away outside the window, shooting out in a jet.

"It was smoke in the cabin, and you could smell it, it was quite acrid and then they said 'evacuate'."

The plane landed safely and 40 passengers disembarked, the airport said.

Video showed them jumping from the emergency doors.

Longmore said ambulance crew were checking passengers after they got off the plane.

"Everyone just got off, left their bags."

Lots of people had been down to the Canterbury University open day, so there were a lot of young people on board, she said.

"We didn't know what was gonna happen, we're really relieved to get off the plane, they did a good job of landing it quickly.

"I think everyone was in shock. Some people were laughing, filming, other people were really shaken up and crying and upset. People like me, we were just kind of in shock, it didn't really seem real.

"And then we had quite a few people had a delayed reaction and got shuttled back to the airport. And quite a few people kind of broke down, and we were all shaking.

"What if that had happened while ... we weren't near an airport or couldn't land, it could've been so much worse, so we were very relieved."

Authorities alerted of mayday

The Civil Aviation Authority said they were alerted at 4.10pm of the flight calling "mayday" due to an engine fire.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesperson confirmed to RNZ they were called to an engine fire shortly after 4pm on Sunday.

The FENZ spokesperson said the fire had been extinguished by the time emergency crews arrived at the scene.

Multiple flights were diverted from landing in Wellington, the airport website showed.

"Five Air New Zealand flights were diverted while the runway was closed and two others have been cancelled," Air New Zealand's Pearce said.

The runway has reopened, an airport spokesperson confirmed, and flights will return to normal schedule soon.

Check the airport website for flight information.

Passengers jumping out of emergency doors - via Wellington Flights Live https://t.co/nskxSHXP9P pic.twitter.com/17iczoT78R

— Dan News (@dannews) September 1, 2024

Well that was an exciting landing #fire #WellingtonAirport #evacuation pic.twitter.com/aJHNZatCL6

— The Akinator (@dudezeon) September 1, 2024