A recovery flight is heading to Baku, capital of the eastern European nation of Azerbaijan, to collect London-bound Qantas passengers whose flight was interrupted by what is believed to be a faulty smoke alarm.

The recovery flight – another Airbus A-380 – left Sydney on Saturday morning and will pick up the stranded flyers with the goal of getting them to London by Christmas morning.

Engineers were also on their way to Azerbaijan to assess the grounded plane.

“We know this has been a significant disruption for customers ahead of Christmas, however we will always put safety before schedule,” an airline spokesperson said.

Grounded customers were put up in hotels as Qantas made plans to extract them from Azerbaijan.

The original flight made the emergency landing at Baku International Airport after sensors warned of smoke in the plane’s cargo hold.

However, this has now been attributed to what is likely a faulty sensor as no evidence of smoke was found in the plane’s hold.

-with AAP