Virgin Australia plane bound for Melbourne forced to divert to ...

• In short: A Virgin Australia plane made an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Queenstown Airport after one of the engines caught fire.
• Chief operations officer, Stuart Aggs, said the incident may have resulted from "a possible bird strike".
• What's next? Passengers will be accommodated in Invercargill overnight and new flights will be arranged. 

A Virgin Australia plane has landed safely in New Zealand after a fire shut down one of its engines, the nation's fire service said.

The Boeing 737-800 jet was bound for Melbourne, with 67 passengers and six crew members on board, when the engine fire forced a diversion to Invercargill Airport. 

Virgin Australia chief operations officer, Stuart Aggs, said in an emailed statement the incident may have resulted from "a possible bird strike".

Flames were seen shortly after the plane took off from Queenstown Airport at 5.50pm local time. 

No further information about what happened at the time of the incident was known, said Catherine Nind, an airport spokesperson.

"At this time, we are not aware of any physical injuries to guests or crew," Mr Aggs said. 

Passengers will be accommodated in Invercargill overnight and new flights will be arranged, he said.

Queenstown, with a population of 53,000, is a popular tourist destination on New Zealand's South Island, famous for skiing, adventure tourism and alpine vistas.

The rate of birds striking planes at New Zealand's airports is about four in every 10,000 aircraft movements, the country's aviation regulator says on its website. 

The consequences vary in severity depending on where the aircraft is hit, the size of the birds and the pilot's reaction, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

It comes after New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was forced to take a commercial flight to Japan on Sunday when a defence force plane broke down.

New Zealand media reported that the Boeing (BA.N) 757 broke down during a refuelling stop in Papua New Guinea, leaving the business delegation and journalists stranded in Port Moresby, while Mr Luxon flew commercial to Japan.

AP