A Qantas flight with hundreds of passengers en route to South Africa has been forced to make a U-turn and return to Sydney due to a fault.

More than 400 passengers on board the QF63 flight from Sydney to Johannesburg when it turned around South of Tasmania on Tuesday.

The plane had been in the air for about four hours when it doubled back to Sydney.

A Qantas spokesman told NewsWire the “fault was with the satellite communications”, which is required for travelling over large bodies of water.

No mayday or other emergency call was made, the spokesman said.

The A380 has returned to Sydney to be reviewed by the engineering team, who will determine the cause of the fault.

All 410 passengers were offered accommodation and are expected to complete their journey to Johannesburg today.

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