In the fifth such incident involving the Australian airline in two weeks, a Qantas flight with 171 passengers on board from Johannesburg to Sydeny was forced to turn around after birds struck one of its four engines.
Qantas said the Boeing 747's number two engine shut down with turbine damage after sucking in a bird shortly after takeoff late on Tuesday night, forcing an emergency landing.
"The flight crew followed procedure for the scenario and returned to Johannesburg," a Qantas spokesman said. He said the 171 passengers on board face delays of at least 24 hours and will be accommodated in hotels.
"The next scheduled service is at 5.30 pm local time, November 17," he said. Qantas has had several problems with its planes' engines over the past two weeks, notably the explosion of an engine on an Airbus A380 over Indonesia on November 4.
The incident follows the return to Sydney of a Qantas Boeing 747 bound for Buenos Aires on Monday after it suffered an electrical fault which caused smoke to pour into the cockpit.
Qantas is keeping its A380 fleet grounded for a 14th day for inspections and powerplant replacements following the November 4 mid-flight explosion of a Rolls-Royce Group Plc engine.