Passenger plane catches fire just seconds before touching down

A passenger plane narrowly avoided a disaster after flames began shooting out of its engine in New Zealand.

Passengers experienced horror on board the Air New Zealand flight after the engine caught on fire with dozens of people on board.

Footage shows the moment the ATR-72 flight from Christchurch to Wellington made a dramatic landing with its engine spewing flames yesterday at about 2pm.

Smoke was seen coming from the left side engine before the aircraft landed and stopped safely on the runway where it was greeted by emergency services.

The engine began emitting smoke just six seconds before touchdown and turned into flames after touching down.

The crews quickly shut both engines down to prevent a disaster.

All passengers were evacuated to safety before any injuries.

Lucy Macleod who was travelling with her son said she saw a glowing red light coming from the engine, 1News reports.

Passengers said the incident was ‘scary’ (Picture: mediadrumimages / @Wellington Flights Live)

The mother said: ‘And then the glow got larger… turned out to be flames, a bit of smoke and, as we were landing, someone yelled out “fire”.’

She said it was a hard landing as all the power went off and there a big billowing smoke appeared outside.

While most people followed instructions, there was some mild panic among passengers.

She commended the cabin crew for remaining calm and leaping into action as soon as the captain gave the evacuation order.

She said: ‘Scary, it was scary, there was a lot of teenagers on the flight there was a baby, there was a beagle in the cargo hold, so everybody had their family to worry about.

‘We wanted to follow the instructions as best we could, but we wanted to get off that plane as fast as possible, especially when we saw the smoke.’

The fire service confirmed there had been an engine fire.

A spokesperson said: ‘There had been a drop in the oil pressure of the engine, the oil obviously was leaking and made contact with hot parts of the engine and ignited.

‘All passengers were safe with no injuries reported.’

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