Qatar Airways became known for malfunctions and lack of services, and most recently an engine failure occurred on a flight to Auckland, New Zealand.

A diverted Qatar Airways flight has a large hole in the engine that caused an emergency landing.

"We took off and had a bit of a noise coming from the engine. It was like a fan going around, but nothing really dramatic," Andy Riley, from Paremoremo, told the New Zealand Herald.

"When we got up the pilot started to descend and came over the intercom to make everyone calm. He said there was nothing wrong but we were going to go down and check out the aircraft.

"When we started seeing the fuel being unloaded we realised something was wrong."

FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft made at least a dozen full circles before returning back to Doha just over an hour after take-off at 3am Doha time.

Riley said it was only once the plane touched down that they realised the extent of the damage.

"On the port side engine you could see the hole in the side of it. It was about 400mm by 400mm."

The Qatar Airways flight, QR920, had been due to arrive in Auckland at 4.45am this morning.

Riley said the incident caused a five hour delay to their journey, which totaled 34 hours.

"A lot of people missed their connecting flights this morning," he said.

The airline confirmed the Auckland flight returned to Doha following an engine issue.