US Central Command has announced that an American warplane made an emergency landing at an air base in Iraq due to a "catastrophic" engine failure.

US Central Command has announced that an American warplane made an emergency landing at an air base in Iraq due to a "catastrophic" engine failure.

The incident happened at the al-Asad airbase in Anbar province and the warplane was an A-10 Thunderbolt, miitary.com reported on Friday.

The US Air Force said in a release that the number one engine on the warplane "suffered catastrophic damage during a routine refueling mission and the pilot was able to safely land the aircraft at the air base."

CentCom spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder also confirmed the incident and said the engine failure was "not uncommon" for the aircraft.

"It was just one of those things that happen when you’re operating high-performance aircraft," he said.

Ryder added that the pilot was not injured and the aircraft was repaired and returned to duty.

Col. Michael Stohler, the 332nd Maintenancer, said a nine-member team was sent to conduct the repairs.

He said the aircraft safely landed “in a location that was not fully secure and we needed it repaired and flown out of there as quickly as possible.”