Hundreds of passengers are stuck in transit following the emergency landing of a United Airlines plane at Sydney Airport.
Los Angeles-bound UA840 was forced to turn back less than an hour after its 9.45am departure on Monday when a bird reportedly flew into an engine.
An emergency airport procedure was declared with firefighters and police on standby. However, the aircraft "landed under its own might and headed back to the terminal," an Airservices Australia spokeswoman told AAP.
In a video posted to Instagram, passenger Christopher "Kip" Hale shared his window view of the plane dumping fuel after being redirected to land.
"Unbeknownst to me, we apparently hit birds during takeoff and flight crew spotted bird strike damage to the plane," the caption on the @kiphale3 post reads.
"A tad unnerving to watch this out your window. All is fine, however, and that is most important!"
The Boeing 787-9 seats 252 passengers and was due to land in LA on July 4 at 6.30am local time.
A United Airlines spokesperson said passengers will be put on the next available flight, most likely departing Sydney on Tuesday.
The airline confirmed the flight returned safely to the airport at 11.13am and apologised for any inconvenience it may have caused.
