'Protein powder' shuts down Virgin Australia flight at Perth airport

Virgin Australia passengers were evacuated from a Perth flight after a "completely harmless" white powder was found in the luggage hold of an aircraft.

A Virgin Air spokeswoman later told 7 News Online the substance that shut down the flight was likely to be "protein powder".

The 92 passengers on board the chartered flight were mostly FIFO (fly in, fly out) workers travelling from the WA Pilbara town Onslow.

Firefighters in Hazmat suits evacuated the passengers about 10am Tuesday, then secured and removed a suspicious item once the plane had landed at Perth airport.

Customers were quarantined as a precautionary measure at an airport lounge "for a short time" while the substance was tested "in line with the airline's standard operating procedures", a Virgin Airlines spokeswoman told 7 News Online.

The unidentified substance was tested and found to be "completely harmless" - not drugs or explosives, but likely to be protein powder or sugar, she said.

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Virgin said testing will continue but it had already been determined the substance was non-hazardous.

No other fights were reportedly affected as a result of the incident.