Recovery flight deployed after Qantas plane forced to make shock diversion

A recovery flight has been sent after a Qantas plane to London was dramatically forced to change route and land in Azerbaijan.

A recovery flight has been deployed for stranded passengers after a Qantas aircraft was forced to stop in Azerbaijan due to a mechanical issue.

The Qantas operated A380 plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Heydar Aliyev Airport in Baku, the capital city of the eastern European country, after it had changed course over Tbilisi, according to website Flightradar24.

The plane is believed to have experienced a mechanical issue while on route from Singapore to London, forcing it to change course.

On Saturday, Qantas issued a statement announcing a recovery flight had left Sydney Airport at 11.40am bound for Baku Airport.

Passengers on a Qantas flight from Singapore to London face at least one night in Azerbaijan after a mechanical fault on the aircraft. Picture: Flight Radar 24

“The aircraft will then pick up customers at Baku Airport and continue on to London,” the airline said.

“It is expected to arrive at Heathrow early on Christmas morning,” Qantas said.

“The aircraft operating the recovery flight is one of the operational spares that Qantas has on standby over the holiday season to help recover customers in the event of an unexpected disruption like this.”

Qantas also said they’d apologised to affected customers and thanked onboard crew and pilots.

An Instagram post from Heydar Aliyev Airport said Flight QF1 landed successfully at 7.08am local time on Friday.

“There were no injuries during the accident,” the translated statement said.

“The aircraft is currently being inspected and a complex of necessary measures is being taken to determine all the causes of the incident.”

Fire and rescue teams were ready on the tarmac when the plane landed, but were not required.

A Qantas spokeswoman told News Corp it was unclear when the aircraft would be able to leave Baku.

Engineers were due to fly from London to inspect the plane, while visas needed to be sourced for the passengers before they departed Baku.