Air NZ aircraft makes emergency landing at Melbourne Airport

A passenger's picture taken aboard flight ANZ726, which suffered an engine failure this morning on take-off. Photo / Supplied

An Air NZ A320 has made an emergency landing at Melbourne Airport after experiencing engine trouble shortly after takeoff.

A pilot on board Flight NZ726, which had 145 passengers and six crew on board, made a mayday call soon after taking off for Auckland just before 8pm last night.

Emergency services, including eight fire engines and police, rushed to the airport but the flight landed without incident.

Kiwi comedian Jeremy Elwood was on board and tweeted soon after it landed.

"In all my years of flying, I just had my first turnaround due to engine failure. Hello again, Melbourne!"

When asked on Twitter what the engine failure sounded like and whether the passengers could hear it, Elwood said: "Nope, all very calm. Plane just turned around. Fire engines waiting for us when we landed but no fire."

Mr Elwood told Radio New Zealand this morning passengers were told a problem with the right engine had forced the emergency landing.

"They didn't make any announcements during the flight itself.

"The captain came on immediately after we landed and explained that there had been a problem with one of the engines and he apologised for not talking to us sooner, but they'd been busy which is quite understandable," he said.

The problem was reportedly with the right-hand engine, Mr Elwood told Radio New Zealand.

"The power to the in-flight entertainment system sort of went out abruptly which was apparently connected in some way," he said.

The flight path of ANZ726. Photo / Flightradar24.com

Air NZ spokesman Andrew Aitken said passengers affected by the emergency landing would be accommodated on other services today.

A yet to be identified engine fault caused the engine to stop working, he said.

There was no suggestion any of the other 20 Airbus A320 aircraft in Air New Zealand's fleet were at risk of fault.

The emergency landing came a day after Air New Zealand was rated the world's second safest airline to fly with by leading air travel website Airlineratings.com.

Qantas was the safest of the 448 airlines rated, having never had a fatality in the jet era.