Qantas flight evacuated as smoke fills cabin at Sydney Airport

Smoke filled a Qantas plane cabin at Sydney Airport on Monday night, delaying the flight bound for Melbourne.

Passengers were evacuated from the plan, and back into the airport terminal about 8pm.

Flight QF1515 departed after a short delay, when smoke filling the cabin was determined to be coming from outside the plane, and not from any fault with the aircraft.

The smoke was found to be coming from the aircraft tug, the vehicle which pulls the aircraft, 7NEWS.com.au understands.

The source of the smoke was not initially known, and passengers were evacuated as a precaution.

Engineers were brought on take a look at the plane, and confirmed shortly after that the aircraft was safe.

The incident occurred just days after a Qantas flight was forced to divert when its engine caught fire during a flight from New Zealand to Sydney.

Locals on the ground reported hearing explosions and passengers said they saw flames, shortly after the Boeing 737 took off from Queenstown on Saturday.

Passenger Kriti Sethi said she heard about five loud banging sounds.

‘Traumatising and scary’

“Everyone was just shaking, it was so traumatising and scary,” she said.

The flight was diverted to Christchurch and landed safely without further incident. It is understood that customers on the plane were provided with accommodation and directed to alternate flights.

A crew of engineers was flown over from Australia to determine exactly what happened.

“Our pilots are highly trained to manage situations like this and the aircraft landed safely,” a Qantas spokesperson said at the time.

“We know this would have been a distressing experience for passengers and will be contacting all customers to provide support.”

The terrifying experience also comes amid larger aviation concerns regarding air traffic controller shortages.

On Sunday, Air Services Australia declared two 45-minute periods during which pilots flying through an affected airspace would need to broadcast their positions directly to one another.

The declaration, known as TIBA — which stands for traffic information broadcasts by aircraft — affected flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, and some Brisbane flights.