Qantas plane makes emergency landing

A Qantas flight from Sydney to Perth has made an emergency landing in Adelaide after a smoke warning light was activated.

Qantas said the Airbus A330 had 253 passengers on board when it diverted to Adelaide Airport and landed without incident.

Aboard the flight were the Central Coast Mariners A-League team, on their way to tomorrow's game against Perth Glory.

"The flight deck received a warning light indicating a technical issue, so as a safety precaution the pilots made the decision to divert to Adelaide," the airline said in a statement.

"The aircraft landed without incident and passengers disembarked via normal procedure through the aerobridge.

"The aircraft is currently being assessed by engineers."

Emergency service crews in Adelaide were put on standby but were not required.

A passenger on the plane said the incident was handled well by the crew.

"Everything went pretty smooth," the passenger identified on ABC radio as Dave said.

"The pilot said he thought it was just a false alarm, but for safety they had to bring the plane back and evacuate everybody.

"The pilot did a great job and the flight attendants did a really good job keeping everybody under control."