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A Qantas flight was forced to turn back around an hour into its journey after reports of an “unusual smell” coming from the cabin, leading to one crew member being taken to hospital.

Flight QF163 departed from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport around 6.45pm AEDT on Wednesday (2 October) on a journey to Wellington International Airport in New Zealand.

Yet, around an hour into what was supposed to be a three-hour flight, the  Boeing 737 plane turned around back to Sydney after there were reports of an “unusual smell” coming from the cabin.

“A flight from Sydney to Wellington returned to Sydney after reports of an unusual smell in the cabin,” a Qantas spokesperson told The Independent.

“The aircraft landed safely and will be checked by engineers before returning to service.

They added that customers were provided with accommodation and were assisted in joining the next available flight.

“We apologise for the disruption to their journey and thank them for their understanding.”

Landing back in Sydney was not classed as an “emergency landing”. Instead, as per Qantas’ standard procedure, the pilots declared a “priority landing” and were met by the aviation fire service on arrival into the city.

While no passengers or pilots were impacted, one cabin crew member was taken to hospital for further medical checks as a “precautionary measure”.

Qantas said that after an initial engineering assessment, they determined the unusual smell was caused by a product used while fixing a part in the gallery area during routine maintenance.

There were no reports of smoke in the cabin, and the aircraft has returned to service in the Australian airline’s fleet.

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