A Qantas flight from Singapore to London has made an emergency landing in Azerbaijan, as the plane was flying over central Asia, due to concerns there was smoke in the cargo hold, with passengers now worried they could miss Christmas.

Flight QF1 landed safely at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev international airport on Friday and was met by emergency services on the runway, after pilots reported 7700 – a code used to communicate an onboard emergency to air traffic controllers.

Flight radars show the plane departed Singapore’s Changi airport and had been in the air for about nine hours before it abruptly made a 180-degree turn and issued the emergency code as it was flying over Georgian airspace.

A Qantas spokesperson said initial investigations on the ground had yet to find evidence of smoke in the cargo hold.

“The aircraft intermittently alerted the pilots to the potential of smoke in the cargo hold. Although it was considered likely to be a sensor fault, the aircraft diverted to Baku as a safety precaution. Initial investigations have found no evidence of smoke in the cargo hold,” the spokesperson said. “We thank customers for their patience and we are working to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”

Engineers were inspecting the aircraft prior to the continuation of the journey, the spokesperson said.

Baku airport released a statement via social media stating the emergency landing request was due to smoke generated in the cargo compartment. The statement said there were no injuries and the plane landed at 7.08am local time. There were 356 passengers on board.

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Baku airport’s statement noted that this was not the first time an A380 had made an emergency landing at the airport, because it had sufficiently long runways to accommodate and service the superjumbo.

It was unclear exactly how long the plane would remain in Baku. Because it was not a regular destination for Qantas, the airline did not have ground staff at the airport.

Qantas was considering flying in engineers from London as well as potentially sending a replacement aircraft to Baku, passengers were told.

“We appreciate this is a significant disruption to your journey but we will always put safety before schedule,” a letter handed to passengers stated.

“Arrangements are being urgently made to get you on your way to London as quickly as possible. Our operations centre in Sydney is looking at a number of options including sending engineers from London to clear the aircraft to return to service and a relief flight using a spare aircraft from Australia.”

“Baku airport is not an airport that Qantas normally operates to, so we don’t have baggage handlers who are authorised to remove your bags from the cargo hold. We apologise for the inconvenience of not being able to return your bag to you today.”

After midday Baku time – about 7pm Sydney time – passengers were told they would have to spend one night in Azerbaijan before the flight could continue.

One passenger said they were told Qantas pilots and crew had been on shift too long to continue working on Friday. Because the airline does not regularly fly to Baku it did not have a relief crew available.

Another passenger earlier told the Guardian that several hours after landing they had received an email from Qantas informing them the airline was “urgently working through options to provide an alternative flight to get you to London as soon as possible”. The email said Qantas was “working with the local ground team to provide you with hotel accommodation”.

Passengers had been given water bottles and sandwiches as they waited inside the terminal.

“Not something we want to hear on 23 December,” one passenger said.

She said while the emergency landing had been calm – described by the pilot as being overly cautious and a “diversion” – the experience was nevertheless “a bit scary”.

“Especially as we’re flying over such a potentially problematic region. Landing in the dark with possibly 20 or 30 emergency vehicles waiting for us was a bit of a reality check,” she said.

Another passenger agreed the landing had been calm. “The only thing that was odd was they abruptly turned on the lights and nothing was said for about 10-15 minutes. The pilot just said we were turning around to Baku and would be there in 45 minutes.”

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