The engine of a Ahmedabad-Bengaluru GoAir flight caught fire at the time of takeoff, the airline said on Tuesday.. The fire, however, was described as a small one and was doused immediately. The passengers and crew on-board are safe and the plane was towed off the runway, GoAir said in a statement.

"The right engine of GoAir flight G8 802 from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru is suspected to have suffered from a foreign object damage (FOD) while on take-off roll. The suspected FOD resulted in a small fire which has been doused," the statement by GoAir said. The suspected FOD was later confirmed to be a bird which hit the plane. An engineering team from GoAir is currently examining the plane. 

The number of persons on board, however, could not be immediately known. The flight was about to take off from Ahmedabad at around 9:30 am when the incident occurred. The passengers deboarded the plan and will be leaving for Bengaluru in a rescheduled flight at 1:30 pm after an alternate aircraft was arranged by the airline company.  

All passengers and crew are safe and no emergency evacuation was deemed necessary, GoAir stated. Safety of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance and the airline sincerely regrets any inconvenience caused to its passengers, it added.