A China Eastern Airlines flight from Sydney to Shanghai was forced to turn around after a large piece of its engine tore away shortly after takeoff.

China Eastern Flight MU736 departed Sydney around 8.30pm on Sunday before experiencing problems and returned about an hour later.

“The moment that we took off, the wing to my left just started making a massive amount of noise and they cleared all the seats,” a passenger told Channel Nine on Monday morning.

Audio, purported to be of the pilot’s emergency call to Sydney Air Traffic Control, has emerged on social media.

Aviation website flight.org posted audio of the pilot telling an air traffic controller: “Engine number one f***ed.”

“Sorry, 736. Roger. Any more information?” air traffic replies.

“We need to maintain heading,” the pilot says.

Audio of tonight's China Eastern Flight #MU736. Uncontained failure just after departure from Sydney. Great audio: "Engine fooked". pic.twitter.com/9QiZ1jLMXQ

— Flight (@flightorg) June 11, 2017

The plane landed safely and passengers were evacuated with no reports of injury.

Aviation authorities are investigating the aircraft and circumstances of the engine failure.

The general manager of China Eastern Airlines Oceania region, Kathy Zhang, said the plane “encountered an engine problem after take-off”.

“The crew observed the abnormal situation of the left engine and decided to return to Sydney airport immediately,” she said in a statement to the ABC.

Images show a huge hole in the engine casing of the Airbus A330, which was forced to circle before touching down safely.

“We went up in the air and all of a sudden … it kind of smelled like burning,” an unnamed passenger told Channel Seven.

China Eastern MU736 Sydney-Shanghai safely returned to SYD after left engine failure. pic.twitter.com/edKRGQCcB6

— ChinaAviationReview (@ChinaAvReview) June 11, 2017

Firefighters were called to the tarmac to assist the pilots when the plane returned to Sydney.

With the majority of on-board announcements made in Chinese, English-speaking passengers said they were struggling to find out any details.

“I was scared. Yes. I was really scared. Our group was terrified,” the passenger told Seven.

Passengers were put up in hotels at Sydney Airport and are expected to depart for Shanghai this morning.

Despite the havoc, passengers applauded airline staff for their professionalism.

Passengers were put up in hotels at Sydney Airport by China Eastern and are expected to depart Sydney on Monday.

“Today the passengers will be arranged to fly to their destinations on either China Eastern flights or other airlines,” a spokeswoman for the airline said.

– AAP