Alliance Airlines plane packed with passengers at Moranbah Airport, Queensland
A fire breaks out on a plane at the Australian airport with 77 passengers on board
A plane carrying dozens of passengers has caught fire on the tarmac of a busy airport as it prepared for takeoff.
Emergency services were called to Moranbah Airport in central Queensland around 6.20pm on Wednesday evening after initial reports of an aircraft setting on fire on the tarmac.
The fire was extinguished before firefighters arrived.
About 77 passengers were on board the Alliance Airlines plane as it prepared to take off for Brisbane.
No one was injured.
Everyone on board safely exited the plane and the flight was cancelled.
The fire is believed to have started from a fuel leak in the exhaust.
“We supervised the aircraft and left it in the hands of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau,” a spokesman for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said.
Passengers recalled seeing smoke coming from one of the plane’s engines.
“So we’re ending the week at work with a little drama,” one man posted online.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has launched an investigation.
More to come.