A Virgin Australia Boeing 737 aircraft bound for Melbourne, Australia, which reportedly encountered a bird strike while taking-off from Queenstown Airport, didn't dump any fuel ahead of its emergency landing at Invercargill Airport last night (17 Jun).

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson said that Boeing 737s didn't have the necessary systems fitted to dump fuel.

"The Virgin Australia aircraft performed several holding patterns near Winton to burn more fuel, complete flight crew checklists, and provide ample time for the cabin crew to prepare the cabin for the pending emergency landing," they said.

The spokesperson also confirmed CAA New Zealand was not currently opening an investigation into the incident at this stage.

However the Australia Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) was gathering further information before making a decision on whether they will investigate, they said.

Meanwhile Invercargill Airport Chief Executive Stuart Harris took to social media to praise the response to last night's emergency.

"We are fully prepared for a scenario such as this with regular training sessions and have multiple procedures in place to deal with a wide range of aircraft issues," he said.

"Within minutes of being notified of the incoming flight, our local airport community, airport firefighting team, Air New Zealand, AvSec, and local emergency services pulled together to prepare for its landing."

"I was really impressed with the collaboration across all the entities at the Airport last night. Fantastic teamwork."

"We also received plenty of support over the phone from Queenstown Airport, CAA, MPI, and Customs," Harris said.

"It was an outstanding and speedy professional response." 

Mr Harris says the airport was supporting Virgin’s engineers as they carried out work on the plane. 

Once fit for take-off, the plane will be able to fly back to Australia from Invercargill's 2210m long sealed runway which is fully capable for all narrow-bodied commercial jets, Harris said.