Qantas flight recovering stranded passengers after emergency landing leaves Azerbaijan

Passengers tired and ‘hanging on by a thread’ but relieved to be on their way despite missing Christmas Eve at their destinations

A Qantas plane that was sent to Azerbaijan to recover passengers stranded after an emergency landing has finally departed Baku and was en route to London on Christmas morning, but a string of challenges has frustrated holiday plans for those onboard.

As relieved passengers queued at Baku airport to board what would be a six-hour flight to London on Sunday morning, the original Qantas plane that flew them to Baku remained on the ground, as engineers continue to be puzzled by the cause behind smoke detection alarms that forced the plan to make an emergency landing.