A Qantas Airways plane bound for Brisbane suffered an engine failure after takeoff on Friday and circled for a short period of time before returning safely to Sydney Airport, the Australian airline said.

Qantas said in a statement on Friday that there had been a "contained engine failure" on the Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to a "contained engine failure" soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.