An Airbus A340 carrying 225 passengers slammed its tail into the runway during take-off, after the wrong weight was programmed into a flight computer.

The Emirates plane was trying to take off from Melbourne, Australia when the incident happened.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said that the weight of the plane which is entered into the computer to calculate the amount of thrust needed for take-off was too light by 100 metric tons.

The mistake was not noticed until the plane was hurtling down the runway and the pilot requested the co-pilot to begin lift off and nothing happened.

With the end of the runway fast approaching, the co-pilot made one last effort to lift the nose, this time succeeding, but simultaneously slamming the tail into the ground, ripping out a runway light and dislodging a flight data recorder at the rear of the plane.

As smoke filled the cabin, the pilot had to ditch his fuel out at sea and make an emergency landing back in Melbourne.

None of the passengers and crew onboard the plane were injured and Emirates have confirmed they will be reviewing training procedures after what could very easily have been a fatal incident.