A passenger on a plane evacuated prior to take off at Tauranga Airport is praising the response of all involved to the hair-raising incident.

Emergency services were called to the airport shortly before 8am this morning.

Air New Zealand flight 8807 was scheduled to take off from Tauranga, heading for Christchurch, at 6.15am but never took flight.

Fiona Birchall was sitting in seat 6A on the outbound flight. She explains that after being taxied to the runway, ready for takeoff, the plane suddenly screeched to an abrupt halt and the air crew on board sprang into action.

'We were delayed anyway this morning by about an hour and a half due to some other problems,” says Fiona, who was heading to Christchurch on a business trip.

'We got the taxi to the end of the runway and as we were turning around the brakes went on. The plane completely and absolutely came to a standstill and was powered down.

'Then we heard that this is an emergency evacuation from the pilot and the hostess shouted ‘Get off the plane, get off the plane, get off the plane.'

'There was all sorts of yelling.”

Once Fiona and her fellow passengers had been safely evacuated and escorted away from the plane's immediate proximity, the cause of the incident was relayed.

'Apparently a light had come on to let them know that smoke had been detected in the luggage hold,” she says.

'But they have not been able to find anything, apparently.”

Fiona saw no smoke and it seems it might have been a false alarm.

'They were not able to detect anything,” she explains.

'The chief fire guy said they were not able to see anything at all.”

Fiona is happy with the reaction from crew on board the plane, emergency responders and Tauranga Airport, who are now dealing with passengers' travel needs with many, Fiona states, opting not to take flight today.

'It was good to see there are procedures in place and everybody was pretty orderly about it,” Fiona says.

'It was just about getting everyone off in a timely fashion without taking all their belongings with them. The little hostess certainly came to life.”

As she admits, there were worse days to be stuck on the runway and she is grateful the evacuation alert happened whilst the plane was still on terra firma.

'It was interesting,” says Fiona.

'It was the first time I have been in a situation where we actually had to evacuate a plane.

'It could have been worse, it could have been raining. We could have been in the air.”