Qantas flight lands safely at Auckland after mayday call

By Praveen Menon and Lucy Craymer

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Qantas Airways said a fire alert that triggered the pilot of a flight from Sydney to make a mayday call before landing safely at Auckland airport on Friday was likely a false alarm.

The pilot of the Boeing 737 made a mayday call and requested an emergency landing after receiving intermittent indications about a potential fire in the cargo hold, the airline said in a statement.

It added preliminary investigations showed there was no fire in the front cargo hold, and the company's engineers would inspect the aircraft to determine the cause of the incident.

There were 156 passengers on board the flight from Sydney to Auckland, a spokesperson said. The airline said they had all exited the plane.

Auckland airport said in a statement that emergency services were on standby earlier in the morning for an inbound aircraft that reported issues.

"The airfield is now returning to normal but there may be some slight delays for departing and arriving flights," it said.

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Additional reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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