Passengers on a British Airways flight from London to Texas found themselves on a “flight to nowhere” and landed back in London nine hours after take-off.
BA195 had just reached Newfoundland when a minor technical issue on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner forced the plane to turn back.
The flight had departed from Heathrow just before 10am on Monday morning and landed back where it started at shortly before 7pm. In total, the “flight to nowhere” travelled 7,779km (4,834 miles), according to FlightRadar24, the tracking website.
Typically, flights from London to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston complete the whole journey in about ten hours and 15 minutes.
It is understood that one of the plane’s Rolls-Royce Trent engines flagged a warning message as the plane was approaching Canada. However, while it did not pose an immediate safety risk, it would need inspection and engineering work.
Instead of continuing to Houston or diverting to another airport in North America — where BA would have limited, or no, engineering resources — the pilots appear to have made the decision to return to London, the airline’s home.
A spokesman for BA said: “The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue. It landed safely and customers disembarked as normal.
“We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their journey.”
All passengers were rebooked onto alternative flights to Houston, including any missed connecting flights in the US. Hotels and information on how to claim for any additional expenses were provided.
Last October, the same aircraft was forced to divert to Anchorage, Alaska, during a flight from Tokyo after a passenger’s mobile phone became trapped and crushed in their seat, before it started smouldering and begin filling the cabin with smoke. With the crew then “out of hours” and unable to work, the passengers arrived in London 33 hours late.
In November an Air New Zealand flight was forced to operate a similar 11-hour “flight to nowhere” after a plane developed a technical fault.
Flight NZ26 from Auckland to Chicago was four hours into the 15-hour scheduled flight when the decision was made to turn back.