A British Airways flight has been forced to make an emergency landing in Sydney after the pilot made an urgent mayday call.
The flight was heading to Singapore before a distress call over Orange in the Central Tableland region of New South Wales.
Hundreds of passengers were on board the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner when the pilot was forced to turn the aircraft around.
Flight BA16 had 200 people on board the original flight.
A Sydney Airport spokesman said: "Earlier this afternoon, British Airways flight BA16 from Sydney to Singapore made an emergency return to Sydney Airport approximately an hour after take-off.
"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."
British Airways confirmed the "aircraft returned to Sydney as a precaution after reports of a technical issue".
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Images from FlightRadar show the U-turn from the aircraft
|FLIGHTRADAR
The airline said in a statement: "The flight landed safely and our teams are working hard to get customers' journeys back on track as soon as possible."
Audio of the mayday call between the pilot and Sydney Airport operations has been shared.
The pilot said: "Mayday Speedbird 16... just about to become established on (runway) 34L, we will have to stop for at least a minute on the runway after landing."
The operation control centre employee responded: "Speedbird 16 Sydney tower... g'day, copy, mayday acknowledged."
Passengers who were on the flight told ABC the pilot was "very calm" but made an announcement over the plane's intercom about smelling fumes onboard.
One woman said: "There was talk of smoke in the cockpit.
"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?"
The plane was carrying 200 people on board
|GETTY
Another passenger 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."
Once the plane had landed, emergency services met the aircraft on arrival.
The aircraft remained on the runway briefly before a fleet of fire trucks escorted it to a gate.