Nearly 200 Qantas passengers ended up in Melbourne instead of Santiago after a mid-flight mechanical issue forced their flight to turn back.

Qantas flight QF27 had left Sydney for Santiago, Chile, on Sunday night when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner developed a problem about 4.5 hours into the trip, after passing New Zealand.

With the aircraft unable to continue, the flight was diverted back across the Tasman and landed in Melbourne at about 11pm (local time).

The plane could not return to Sydney because of the airport’s overnight curfew, leaving travellers unexpectedly stranded in Victoria instead of arriving in Chile after the roughly 10-hour journey.

Passengers who had boarded expecting to wake up in Santiago instead ended the night in Melbourne, where Qantas arranged hotel accommodation while engineers began inspecting the aircraft.

The airline said affected travellers were booked to continue to Santiago on a replacement flight from Melbourne about midday on Monday.

Source: News.com