The airport in Australia's capital city of Canberra has been shut down due to the threat of approaching bushfires.
Flights were cancelled out of Canberra Airport, a 20 minute drive from Parliament House in the city centre.
A heatwave sweeping the nation's south-east caused existing blazes to flare up again on Thursday, officials said.
There are reports that a fire-fighting aircraft has crashed in the Snowy Mountains, two hours south of the capital.
The New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service said it had lost contact with one of its large air tankers on Thursday afternoon.
There are more than 100 blazes raging across the state of NSW as hot and windy conditions return to the region.
In Canberra, officials issued emergency warnings urging people to stay away from the airport as two blazes threatened to breach the airfield perimeters.
Authorities said the blazes threatening Canberra Airport had escalated after first appearing on Wednesday.
The capital, located in an administrative region between Sydney and Melbourne, has had large blazes raging on its outskirts for weeks.
Smoke from the fires has caused severe air pollution problems, with the city suffering the worst air quality in the world for several days earlier this year.
(Source: BBC News)