Singapore Airlines flight diverted back to Melbourne Airport

A flight bound for Singapore has been forced to divert back to Melbourne Airport after a technical issue in the air.

Flight data shows Singapore Airlines flight SQ228 took off from Melbourne Airport at 4.51pm and circled around the north of Melbourne before diverting back to the tarmac.

Callers to 3AW reported seeing the plane flying low over the eastern suburbs.

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"It just flew over our house a few minutes ago. It was so low, you could see wheels down and I just waved at all the passengers as they went overhead," 3AW caller Sam said.

"I've never seen a plane that low before. It was scary."

Footage showed the plane dumping fuel as it made its way back to the airport.

"As the aircraft had to turn back shortly after take-off, the pilots had to dump the fuel in order to land within the landing weight," Singapore Airlines said.

"We saw it do a turn really low and I looked it up, it was at 6900 feet dumping fuel and yeah, redirecting back to Melbourne," Kinglake resident Gordon told 3AW.

The plane landed safely without incident at Melbourne Airport about 5.50pm.

The Boeing 777-300ER with 219 customers and 17 crew "landed uneventfully", the airline said.

"All customers disembarked the aircraft normally."

Passengers were being given meal vouchers as ground engineers try to fix the technical issue.

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