Emergency forces plane to land at Christchurch Airport

A plane touched down safely after an emergency forced it to land at Christchurch Airport on Thursday evening.

Fire and Emergency NZ said a crew from the Ilam station responded to the incident after it was alerted to an issue with an aircraft about 4.30pm.

Firefighters from the Christchurch Airport station were also at the scene when the flight arrived.

The aircraft landed safely and the crews left shortly afterwards.