Emergency services rushed to Auckland Airport earlier today after the pilot of an inbound Qantas flight issued a mayday call over the Tasman.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand said it had been alerted to an emergency at 11.05am, having received reports the flight from Sydney had a fire on board.

Sixteen fire trucks from the Auckland area responded.

Flying over from Australia, Annalise Harris said passengers were alerted to the situation about 30 minutes before landing.

“It was frightening, I thought that was it, I thought ‘nah that’s it’,” she said.

“It was very rough, and I wouldn’t jump on a plane again, that’s what I’m thinking right now.”

Harris said the ordeal had left her wary of the her flight back.

“I’m very concerned. I want to live here now.”

Geoff Tangitutu was also onboard and described the scene after landing in Auckland this morning.

“As soon as the plane landed, you look to your left there’s a f****** firetruck, you look to your right, there’s a fire truck, like everywhere” he said.

Tangitutu said despite what happened, it hadn’t put him off flying.

“Nah, hell no, nah bro it was actually a little bit fun…”

In a statement, Qantas said pilots on Flight 141 were receiving “intermittent indication about potential fire in the cargo hold”.

“The pilots followed standard procedures and notified authorities through a mayday call.”

Ambulances were on standby near the tarmac as the Boeing 737 landed safely before midday and passengers disembarked.

Earlier reports had said two patients in a minor condition were assessed by ambulance staff and no transport was required.

However, Hato Hone St John and Qantas have since clarified the patients were not passengers on the flight and were unrelated to the incident. 

“Preliminary investigations report that there was no fire in the front cargo hold,” the airline said in its statement. “Our engineers will inspect the aircraft to determine the cause.”

By noon operations were returning to normal, but Auckland Airport warned there could be slight delays for departing and arriving flights into the afternoon.