The Qantas flight to London, which was scheduled to arrive at Heathrow Airport at 6.15am (GMT) on Friday, had to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan after the pilots received an error indicator flashing light in the cabin.
However, the stranded plane in Baku is also causing chaos for Qantas customers in London, who had booked to fly home on Christmas Day.
QF1 on the tarmac at Baku Airport in Azerbaijan after making an emergency landing. Credit: Nik Long
One passenger, who did not want to be named, said he was told by Qantas customer service that the plane he and his family are due to fly back to Australia is the same plane that is grounded in Baku.
“We were [meant] to fly tonight, December 23, to Sydney. The whole intention was to come home for Christmas,” the man said.
“Now it looks like we’ll be able to fly out on the 25th, get home on Christmas Day… It’s very upsetting for my family, and I’m a bit perplexed. I thought they would be better than this.”
Qantas said in a statement that engineers were traveling from London and Sydney to inspect the A380 currently on the ground in Baku with a faulty sensor in the cargo hold.
“The aircraft operating the recovery flight is one of the operational spares Qantas has on standby over the holiday season to help recover customers in the event of an unexpected disruption such as this,” the statement said.
Qantas customers stuck in Baku have been put up in hotels, but some said they sat at the airport for seven hours before being taken to a hotel.
“All passengers are handing over their passports to the Azerbaijani border teams, accompanied by a Qantas representative,” a customer said on Friday night.
“They are literally putting them in a duffel bag [and] taken somewhere for the approval process.”
The airline confirmed that the glitch was apparently a false alarm and the plane’s pilots had acted in accordance with the airline’s safety protocols. Qantas has never had a fatal plane crash.
It has been a similar nightmare for Qantas customers in Bali who, 10 minutes before their plane was due to leave for Sydney, said they were told there was no plane and they would be moved to hotels.
One passenger took to Twitter, claiming the flight had been canceled because the crew did not get enough rest, a claim Qantas did not deny when the airline responded, apologizing for the disruption.
Passenger William Mansell, who was due to board the flight from Bali to Sydney, said the plane had already been delayed by bad weather before the news that it would not take off at all.
“They [Qantas] he said the plane would arrive in bali in the morning and tomorrow at 2pm we will fly to sydney [Indonesian time],” said Mansell, who was able to return to his home in Bali instead of a hotel.
But now, he and his young family will touch down in Sydney at 6.30am (AEDT) on Christmas morning.
“No offer of apology. No effort to make it right with anything to help cheer us up. And of course the ever-present thought it might all happen again tonight, knowing the pathetic recent airline record.”
A Qantas spokesman said on Friday that a flight from Sydney was diverted to Jakarta due to “unexpected bad weather” in Bali.
“Due to crew rest requirements, the flight was unable to continue to Bali until Saturday. This also delayed the return service from Bali to Sydney,” he said. “While we know this would have been frustrating for passengers, our crews are getting them on their way as quickly as possible.”
Flight QF44 from Bali is now expected to depart at 22:50 local time on Saturday.
With Amelia McGuire
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