A Rex Airlines flight bound for Broken Hill was forced to return to the Adelaide Airport on Wednesday after an ‘incident’ where worried passengers saw unburnt fuel ignited in the engine’s exhaust.

Adelaide Airport confirmed the incident involving a Saab 340 plane – a Swedish twin-engine aircraft – with a capacity for 34 passengers closed the runway for around 20 minutes.

“The crew followed standard operating procedures, rejecting the take-off and safely vacating the runway,” the statement said, it was believed there were three crew members aboard.

“In accordance with standard operating procedures, crew shut down the left engine and as a result a small amount of unburnt fuel ignited in the left-hand engine’s exhaust pipe for a brief period.

Buses were arranged to transport passengers back to the terminal and the airline arranged for passengers to travel on an alternate service which departed Adelaide at 10:15am.

An Adelaide Airport spokesperson confirmed the incident saying a “Rex plane due to depart to Broken Hill reported a fault while on the runway and the plane was taken back to its bay”.

“This impacted operations with the runway closed for around 20 minutes. Normal operations resumed at 8am,” he said.

“Rex is currently working with impacted passengers to rebook their flights.”

It is understood the affected plane is out of service as Rex conducts an internal review, and the relevant aviation regulator has been notified of the incident.

In a statement, Australia’s national transport safety investigator ATSB said its team would investigate an engine failure on take-off incident involving a Regional Express Saab 340 aircraft at Adelaide this morning.

“As reported to the ATSB, during the aircraft’s take-off roll for a scheduled flight to Broken Hill, the crew observed engine warnings for the left engine and aborted the take-off. During the aborted take-off procedure, the engine failed,” it said.

As part of the investigation ATSB investigators would review recorded flight data, interview the flight crew and other involved parties, and gather aircraft maintenance and other relevant records and documentation.

The ATSB asked anyone with video footage of the incident to make contact via the witness form on its website: atsb.gov.au/witness.