Malaysia Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Melbourne

MELBOURNE: A Malaysia Airlines plane carrying over 300 passengers made an emergency landing today at Melbourne airport within minutes of take-off after its aircraft systems reported an engine fire.

Flight MH148 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur landed without incident or injury, airport spokeswoman Anna Gillett said.

The Airbus A330 plane departed Melbourne Airport at 2:16 pm (0416 GMT) to head towards the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur but had to perform an emergency landing.

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

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.

"Preliminary inspection on the aircraft reveals no physical evidence of fire externally. Safety is our utmost priority," it said, adding that the aircraft is being grounded for investigation.

"More than 300 passengers were onboard the Malaysia Airlines flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur," Australian media quoted a spokesman of Metropolitan Fire Brigade as saying.

The spokesman said the plane dumped fuel before making the emergency landing about 3:00pm.

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

The cash-strapped state-owned airline lost two airliners in disasters last year.

A Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals - had mysteriously vanished on March 8, 2014 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

Another Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July last year, killing all 298 on board.