A-League Men: Perth Glory trip home from Western Sydney delayed after mid-air emergency

Perth Glory’s drama-filled season has continued after their flight home from Sydney was forced to make a U-turn after smoke was detected in the plane cockpit.

Glory coaches and players were caught up in the mid-air drama in the wake of their 4-1 A-League Men defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday.

The Qantas flight bound for Perth was forced to turn around and make an sudden landing on Monday morning after an 18-minute delay on the tarmac.

An emergency declaration for “possible assistance needed” (PAN) for flight QF643 was made minutes after departure about 8.40am on Monday, with the captain requesting a priority landing.

The Boeing 737 landed safely at Kingsford Smith Airport, where it had departed from, and was met by emergency services approximately 20 minutes after take-off.

A Qantas spokesperson told 7NEWS the diversion was made because of a technical issue and engineers would investigate the plane to determine what caused the issue.

“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted,” they said.

“We understand this would have been an unsettling experience for customers and apologise for the inconvenience.”

Fortunately for all passengers, including the road-weary Glory, they were able to jump on another flight later that morning and arrived back in Perth later on Monday.

Glory midfielder Nicholas Pennington said the mid-flight crisis had provided a rude awakening for some of the squad — quite literally.

“Some of the boys woke up and thought we were landing in Perth — they were quite disappointed they were landing back in Sydney,” he told 9 News.