A British Airways flight made an emergency landing at Sydney Airport in Australia after the pilot issued a mayday call.

“The aircraft returned to Sydney as a precaution after reports of a technical issue. The flight landed safely and our teams are working hard to get customers’ journeys back on track as soon as possible,” the airline reportedly said in a statement.

Daily Mail has more:

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which took off just after 3pm, was bound for Singapore when it sent out a distress call over Orange in the Central Tablelands region of NSW.

Hundreds of passengers were on board the flight BA16 when the pilot was forced to turn the aircraft around.

‘Earlier this afternoon, British Airways flight BA16 from Sydney to Singapore made an emergency return to Sydney Airport approximately an hour after take-off,’ a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.

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‘The aircraft arrived safely and was met by emergency services as part of standard procedures.

‘All passengers have since disembarked safely, and there has been no impact to airport operations.’

10 News Sydney provided additional coverage:

ABC shared additional details:

Passengers who were on board the flight told the ABC the pilot had been “very calm” but made an announcement over the plane’s intercom about smelling fumes onboard.

“There was talk of smoke in the cockpit, ” one woman said. “So, half an hour out ..and then we came half an hour back.

“I’m glad it happened when it did and not five hours out on the flight path, where would we be now?,” she said on Monday night .

Dublin-bound Brian Trainor said “we got informed that we had to return to Sydney but there was very little to tell that there was anything wrong.

“The captain said something about being able to smell fuel or something in the cockpit,” he said .

He said he couldn’t smell anything himself while sitting in the plane’s aisle.

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He said he was hoping to stay a night in the airport’s hotel. “This is going to take ages to get through here,” he said, gesturing to the passenger queues.

One woman described the pilot during the episode as “very calm”.

A British Airways’ spokesperson told the ABC after the plane landed safely at the airport, engineers conducted a thorough examination and found no issue with it. He said it was deemed safe and cleared to fly again.

However, a decision to cancel the actual flight was made because it was quicker to rebook most of the affected passengers on alternative flights to allow them to continue with their journeys.

9 News Australia also provided coverage:

 

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