Malaysia Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Melbourne

Melbourne: A Malaysia Airlines plane carrying more than 300 passengers made an emergency landing at Melbourne airport today after a reported engine fire.Flight MH148 departed Melbourne Airport at 2:16 pm (0416 GMT) to head towards the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur but had to perform an emergency landing. All passengers were safe.

“After departing from Melbourne, the aircraft’s systems indicated there was an engine fire, so it returned and landed,” SAID  a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

However, an inspection of the aircraft after it landed found no evidence of a fire on board, the spokesman said.Malaysia Airlines also tweeted that early inspections found no evidence of fire.

“More than 300 passengers were onboard the Malaysia Airlines flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur,” a spokesman of Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was quoted as saying.

Emergency crews were called to the airport around 2:20pm (local time).The spokesman said the plane dumped fuel before making the emergency landing about 3:00pm.

According to online trackers, the flight took several circles above Melbourne before landing.