Plane turns back to Sydney after "unusual odour" detected

A flight bound for San Francisco was turned back to Sydney on Sunday afternoon when an "unusual odour" was detected onboard.

United Airlines flight 870 took off from Sydney's international airport as scheduled at 10.52am.

However, around an hour into the flight, an unknown smell began to permeate the cabin.

The plane was then turned around, touching down in Sydney at approximately 1pm.

A spokesman for the US-based airline told Fairfax Media there were 238 passengers on board the aircraft, believed to be a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

"There was an unusual odour in the cabin. The crew elected to return to have maintenance evaluate," the spokesman said.
One passenger, an Australian man who now lives in San Francisco, said he didn't smell anything but saw flight attendants walking back and forth "obviously checking something out" before the plane turned around.

Passengers were "very relaxed" as they watched the plane dump its load of fuel over the ocean in preparation for its landing, the man said.

When the plane arrived back in Sydney, passengers were told to line up to re-board, before the airline decided to reschedule the flight for Monday at 12.30pm – almost 26 hours after its expected departure.

The path taken by United Airlines flight 870 on Sunday. Photo: Flightradar24.com

Stranded passengers finally arrived at hotels in Darling Harbour at 4.30pm and were offered $35 to cover three meals while they waited for their rescheduled flight.

The man said he spent 50 minutes on hold on his mobile phone trying to book his replacement flight, and described the entire experience as "haphazard".

"The biggest bungle was they hadn't served lunch yet, at least to all the plebs down the back of the plane," he said.
"There was no drama, just disappointment more than anything – most people were settling in for a 14 hour flight and now we have to do it all again."

A United spokesman said passengers would be accommodated "as quickly as we can to San Francisco and their final destinations".
In February, a Boeing 787 owned by another airline was involved in a similar incident after departing from London's Heathrow airport.

According to aviation blogs, the plane owned by Air Canada was around 110 kilometres west of Dublin on February 3 when an "electrical smell" was detected and it was turned back. It was back in the air around four hours later.


(culled from www.smh.com.au)