Qantas sends rescue flight to Azerbaijan after stranded passengers left in the dark | Qantas

Qantas passengers stranded in Azerbaijan after an emergency touchdown are anticipated to make it to London by Christmas morning, after the airline deployed a restoration flight from Australia.

The restoration flight left Sydney at 11.40am on Saturday and was anticipated to choose up the stranded passengers from Baku airport and proceed on to London arriving “early on Christmas morning”, in line with a press release Qantas launched on Saturday afternoon.

The flight from Singapore to London made an emergency touchdown at Baku airport on Friday because of issues there was smoke within the cargo maintain, however preliminary investigations discovered no proof of smoke. Qantas later stated the incident was probably a sensor fault.

Passengers have been left with out affirmation how they’d be attending to London for nearly 24 hours after touchdown at 7am, native time, on Friday morning. Some passengers took to social media within the early hours of Saturday morning when the airline had not supplied any communication in any respect since 4pm the day earlier than.

Guardian Australia spoke to Julia and Kendall Brown, who have been travelling with their two young children, aged six and 4, on waking up in Baku on Saturday morning nonetheless with “no strong info from Qantas on once we may be capable to get out of right here”.

Julia, who’s English, had not been capable of go house for 4 years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the go to was alleged to be the primary time her youngsters met their cousins. Her mother and father would even have their six grandchildren collectively for the primary time.

“We may have come for half the worth in July however you may’t pay for Christmas reminiscences,” Julia stated.

Kendall stated: “Are we truly going to overlook Christmas? The longer we go with out a definitive approach out, the nearer that appears to be a real consequence or chance.”

The primary indicators that their vacation was being derailed was when the cabin lights got here on with six hours to go on the flight.

Kendall stated a member of the flight crew “actually shook [the lead steward’s] leg, which is when he knew one thing was up”.

Many passengers had seen the aircraft had modified course on the flight plan earlier than an announcement was ultimately made greater than 90 minutes after the cabin lights have been turned on, Kendall stated.

The aircraft taxied for about half an hour surrounded by emergency automobiles, Kendall stated. “There was a heap of native help however nobody was truly coming close to the aircraft.”

He stated passengers had been instructed it was most certainly a sensor error, however “It was unsettling. If there was a fireplace within the aircraft, if it was not an error, why are we nonetheless sitting right here?”

An excellent longer wait ensued within the airport terminal in Baku, the place the Brown household spent greater than 11 hours.

As a result of Baku was not an everyday vacation spot for Qantas, the airline didn’t have floor workers on the airport and likewise needed to make preparations for the stranded passengers to get visas.

“It was three-and-a-half hours till they handed out bottles of water after which an hour after that they put out luggage of sandwiches for folks to eat,” Julia stated. “However we went for hours at a time with no updates.”

Twelve hours after the aircraft landed in Azerbaijan at 7am within the morning, the Browns arrived on the Marriott Lodge, Julia and their youngsters falling asleep within the resort foyer as Kendall waited to check-in.

Qantas has apologised to prospects and thanked them for his or her endurance because the airline finalised the restoration plans.

“They’ve spent the night time on the Marriott Lodge and been supplied meals and transport,” the airline stated.

“We’d additionally wish to thank the pilots and crew who operated the disrupted service for his or her professionalism and their help to prospects.”

Kendall stated: “I can’t converse extremely sufficient personally of the Qantas workers on the aircraft itself.”

Qantas stated the plane working the restoration flight was one of many operational spares the service has on standby over the vacation season “to assist get better prospects within the occasion of an surprising disruption like this”.

Qantas thanked the Australian authorities and 7 overseas governments for “urgently processing the required flight path approvals for this one-off restoration flight.”

Qantas engineers are additionally travelling from London and Sydney to examine the A380 in Baku.