The Boeing 737 carrying 124 people turned back in line with the airline's safety policy, a Qantas spokeswoman said.

"It was just smoke coming from the oven," she told AFP.

"The crew turned the oven off but we took the plane back to Adelaide."

The incident comes just days after a cockpit fire caused by an electrical fault forced a Qantas Airbus A330-200 bound for Manila from Sydney to make an unscheduled landing.

In that instance, the pilots used an extinguisher to douse the fire and diverted to the nearest airport Cairns, in tropical north Queensland where they landed safely.

Qantas has endured a dramatic few months. Last November it temporarily suspended flights of its Airbus A380 superjumbos after an engine on one exploded after taking off from Singapore, damaging the plane.

Then in January, a flight bound for New York made an unscheduled stop in Fiji after the Boeing 747 developed a problem with a fuel valve supplying one of its engines.

Soon after, another Boeing 747 suffered mid air mechanical trouble after taking off from Bangkok and was forced to return to the Thai capital.