As soon as a Vietnam Airlines (VNA) plane landed at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday afternoon, one of its engines caught fire. Emergency measures were taken and all passengers, as well as the plane, remained safe.

At 3:55 pm June 3, while an Airbus A330 that had departed from Melbourne, Australia at 10:35 am, was taxing to its parking place after landing, smoke was seen coming from its no. 2 engine, said Le Truong Giang, the spokesperson of the national carrier. The crew immediately applied emergency measures, while ambulances and fire engines were also mobilized to the scene, while all 166 passengers and 13 crew members of Flight VN780 were discharged from the plane safely. The luggage of the passengers was removed from the plane later and returned to them at 4:30 pm.  Concerned agencies are investigating to identify what caused the engine to burn, Giang said. The plane was manufactured on August 27, 2008 with a registered number A376 and was put into operation in Vietnam on July 20, 2010.

The latest regular technical check on the plane was carried out on May 20, 2013.

Five years ago a similar case also occurred with a Boeing 777 owned by VNA when it was landing at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan on July 30, 2008.

When white smoke was seen coming from one of the plane’s engines, all the passengers and the crew escaped from the plane safely and firefighters put out the flame shortly thereafter.