Qantas jumbo turns back after 'electrical fault'

A Qantas Boeing 747 jet bound for Argentina returned to Sydney, Australia, after experiencing a suspected electrical fault, the airline said today.

No-one was injured in the incident, which comes after a Rolls-Royce engine on one of the Australian airline's Airbus A380 superjumbos disintegrated in flight early this month.

Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward said the Boeing jumbo jet carrying 119 passengers and 22 crew developed "a technical issue" an hour after it left Sydney.

He said the jet dumped fuel as a precaution before landing safely at Sydney airport at 1.20pm local time today (2.20am GMT yesterday) - two hours and 10 minutes after it took off.

Mr Woodward says the problem was "to do with the electrical system, we think", although engineers had yet to establish the cause.