A Malaysia Airlines plane has made an emergency landing at a Melbourne airport after false alerts from the aircraft's system of an engine fire.

A spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said an inspection of the aircraft after it landed at Tullamarine Airport found no evidence of a fire on board.

"After departing from Melbourne, the aircraft's systems indicated there was an engine fire, so it returned and landed," the spokesman said.

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"After landing safely, the plane was checked and there was no evidence of any fire."

Melbourne Airport also tweeted the plane landed safely: "All operations at Melbourne Airport continue as normal."

About 300 passengers were onboard flight MH148 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur.

The plane was towed to a gate and passengers disembarked.

Emergency crews were called to the airport about 2:20pm, but no one on board required treatment.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement the Airbus 330 "made a turnback" to Melbourne and was being inspected.

"The Airbus 330 is being inspected by Malaysia Airlines' engineers and ground personnel." "Preliminary inspection reveals no physical evidence of fire externally, and further assessment is underway. "Safety is of the utmost importance to Malaysia Airlines. More information will be released when available."

'No panic' aboard Malaysia Airlines flight

An MFB spokesman said the plane dumped fuel before making the emergency landing about 3:00pm.

Passenger Gurav Gupta, who was travelling to Bangalore via Kuala Lumpur, said the experience was "horrifying".

"It had about eight or nine laps up in the air so we were not sure what was going on, and we were told that it was a minor issue with the aircraft," he said.

"It was pretty scary, considering Malaysia Airlines and what has happened in the past, it was pretty scary."

But he said people on the aircraft were "generally relaxed".

Another passenger, Annand J, said they were only told what had happened once they got onto the tarmac.

"We realised that it was just going around and around in circles and then we realised that we were going back — [it was] all good," he said.

"I was just chatting with the guys next to me, there was nothing stressing at that stage and the pilot kept saying that it was all under control.

He said the airline had provided those on board with accommodation and taxi fares, and they would be told when a replacement flight would leave on Saturday.

Paul and Mary Reid said the pilot said there was a "technical issue" and the plane would land in 10 minutes, but it took much longer.

"We didn't land for another 40 minutes it seemed, and it did [make me anxious]," Ms Reid said.

"And I thought 'they're getting rid of the fuel' and I said 'where does it all go', and my husband said 'it just vaporises'."

Mr Reid said they had not been given a lot of information, but he thought the crew handled the situation well.

"We can say that the crew handled it magnificently and we're astonished with the captain's aplomb at bringing us down in what must have been a difficult descent," Mr Reid said.

"It was a very fast landing, it seemed like a quite steep landing. It was very scary, I was terrified," Ms Reid said.