Qantas flight turns back after 'electrical issue'

A Qantas flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires has been forced to turn back after experiencing electrical problems.

The incident comes nine days after a Qantas aircraft made an emergency landing at Singapore airport when one of its engines disintegrated over Indonesia.

A statement from Qantas said that flight QF17, operated by a Boeing 747 and carrying 199 passengers, departed from Sydney Kingsford Smith at 11:11am. The aircraft suffered "an issue with the electrical system" and landed safely back at 1:22pm, the statement said.

Reports from Australian media said that the plane, which was also carrying three flight crew and 18 cabin crew, had to dump fuel before it landed. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the electrical problem lead to smoke in the cockpit.

One passenger told the paper's website: "There were no lights, no entertainment, only the emergency panels were on," "We were pretty bloody concerned."

No one was injured during the incident, Qantas said. Engineers are investigating the cause of the problem.

The incident is the latest piece of bad news for the Australian carrier, which celebrated its 90th birthday last week under a cloud of concern over the safety of its fleet of A380 superjumbos.

The string of mid-air emergencies has dented Qantas's reputation as the safest airline in the world. The company has never suffered a fatal crash.

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