Crew and passengers reported hearing a loud bang about 45 minutes after the Emirates Airbus A380-800 left Dubai. | SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty

An Emirates passenger jet flew for nearly 14 hours with a large hole in its side after a ruptured tire caused damage to its exterior.

Crew and passengers reported hearing a loud bang around 45 minutes after the Airbus A380-800 departed Dubai for Brisbane on Friday, according to Australian newspaper The Courier Mail.

Believing a tire had blown, the plane's pilots contacted Brisbane airport requesting emergency services meet them there, per The Aviation Herald, which tracks flight safety incidents.

When it landed, engineers found a large hole on the side of the plane.

A spokesperson for Emirates told The Independent that the aircraft experienced a "technical fault" when one of its 22 tires ruptured during cruise. This caused "damage to a small portion of the aerodynamic fairing, which is an outer panel or the skin of the aircraft," the spokesperson said.

"At no point did it have any impact on the fuselage, frame, or structure of the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely in Brisbane and all passengers disembarked as scheduled," the spokesperson added.

The airline said the fairing had been completely replaced, checked, and cleared by engineers, as well as Airbus and all relevant authorities.

According to the flight tracking services FlightAware and FlightRadar, the plane returned to Dubai on Sunday.

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