An Air New Zealand Boeing 737 plane with 102 passengers on borad had to make an emergency landing at Wellington Airport on Wednesday afternoon after striking birds shortly after takeoff.

The Fire Service was alerted at about 1:15 p.m. after the pilot of the plane reported an engine had shut down.

Nine fire trucks were called to the scene but were stood down after the plane landed without incident at about 1:30 p.m..

Air New Zealand said bird strike is behind engine trouble on the passenger jet.

Engineers were inspecting the plane and the passengers were transferred to another aircraft to continue their journey, an airline spokeswoman said.