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A Qantas flight was forced to turn back around an hour into its journey after reports of an \u201cunusual smell<\/a>\u201d coming from the cabin, leading to one crew member being taken to hospital.<\/p>\n Flight QF163 departed from Sydney<\/a> Kingsford Smith Airport around 6.45pm AEDT on Wednesday (2 October) on a journey to Wellington International Airport in New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Yet, around an hour into what was supposed to be a three-hour flight, the\u00a0 Boeing 737<\/a> plane turned around back to Sydney after there were reports of an \u201cunusual smell\u201d coming from the cabin.<\/p>\n \u201cA flight from Sydney to Wellington returned to Sydney after reports of an unusual smell in the cabin,\u201d a Qantas<\/a> spokesperson told The Independent.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe aircraft landed safely and will be checked by engineers before returning to service.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n They added that customers were provided with accommodation and were assisted in joining the next available flight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe apologise for the disruption to their journey and thank them for their understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n Landing back in Sydney was not classed as an \u201cemergency landing\u201d. Instead, as per Qantas\u2019 standard procedure, the pilots declared a \u201cpriority landing\u201d and were met by the aviation fire service on arrival into the city.<\/p>\n While no passengers or pilots were impacted, one cabin crew member was taken to hospital for further medical checks as a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n There were no reports of smoke in the cabin, and the aircraft has returned to service in the Australian <\/a>airline\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n