Qatar Airways plane makes emergency landing at Istanbul airport after engine catches fire following 'bird strike'

Flight 240 took off as scheduled but performed a U-turn after a 'bird strike'

A Qatar Airways plane has made an emergency landing in Istanbul after one of its engines caught fire following a bird strike.

Radar showed the aircraft diverting over the Marmara Sea shortly after take-off on Thursday and returning to land at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

Footage showed flames bursting out of the Airbus A330's left engine as it came in to land.

Data recorded by FlightRadar24 showed the plane performing a U-turn to land at Istanbul Airport on 18 August (FlightRadar24)

Mehmet Kirazoglu told The Independent he was at a Turkish Airlines technology building near by the airport when he heard a “strange plane engine sound” overhead.

“When we looked up we saw that a Qatar plane's left engine was flaming out,” he added.

“It turned round towards the sea, I suppose it drained its fuel. Afterwards we learnt it landed safely.”

Mr Kirazoglu said he and his colleagues could clearly see that the left engine was burning and that the aircraft’s landing gear had not been closed.

A spokesperson for Qatar Airways said the plane landed safely and all 298 passengers and 14 crew "disembarked normally", although local Turkish news agencies reported one woman on board was hospitalised after becoming faint.

The airline said it would send a replacement aircraft to Istanbul to take delayed passengers onward to its hub in the vast new Hamad International Airport in Doha, which is preparing to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

The flight, codenamed QR240, took off for Doha at 1.20pm local time (11.20am BST) and landed in Istanbul 40 minutes later.

Officials said it suffered a "bird strike", which typically happens when large flocks are sucked into jet engines, causing them to fail by breaking fan blades.

Twin-engine planes like the A330 can fly with one engine, with pilots trained to safely take off and land in the event of failure.

There are also in-built safeguards to stop fires spreading, with fire extinguishers inside engines that can be activated from the cockpit.

Earlier this month, an Emirates plane was consumed by flames after landing at Dubai International Airport, with the blaze killing a firefighter.

Istanbul Ataturk Airport was targeted by Isis supporters in a gun and bomb attack that killed more than 40 people on 28 June but there was no suggestion of foul play in Thursday's incident.