A near-empty Boeing 737 Max has made an emergency landing in the US state of Florida.

The crew of the Southwest Airlines plane declared the emergency shortly after departure on Tuesday and returned to Orlando International Airport.

CNBC has said it reported an engine problem.

The plane was not carrying passengers and was instead heading for California to be put into storage.

This type of aircraft was grounded globally earlier this month.

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) ordered the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, following an Ethiopian Airlines crash which killed all 157 people on board.

The crash, which came just months after another accident involving the same aircraft model in Indonesia, has led to questions over the safety of the aircraft.

The planes had already been banned from Irish and EU airspace.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) suspended the 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX from European airspace on March 12th.

In a statement at the time, the EASA said: "Following the tragic accident of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 involving a Boeing 737 MAX 8, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is taking every step necessary to ensure the safety of passengers."

It added that "as a precautionary measure" it was suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX planes in Europe.

All commercial flights from third-country operators into, within or out of the EU, using those models were also suspended.