A British Airways flight from London Heathrow on Monday (10 June) crossed the Atlantic Ocean and spent nine hours in the air before touching down right back where it started.
The journey from London to Houston, Texas in the US, had just about made it across the world’s second largest ocean and to the North American continent when it turned back over Canada and returned to the UK.
Having taken off at 9:27am on Monday morning from Heathrow, the plane spent nine hours and 27 minutes in the air before touching down at the same airport at 6:45am the following day (11 June).
Passengers had essentially lost an entire day and ended up right back where they started, and British Airways said the flight had to turn back because of a ‘minor technical issue’.
A flight from London to London in nine hours. (Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
The exact nature of this issue is unspecified, but it was enough to make the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner turn back and re-cross the Atlantic Ocean.
According to The Independent, the amount of time the plane was in the air was only around 30 to 40 minutes shy of the time it’d have taken to get to Houston.
All passengers were re-booked onto other flights so they could make their journey to Houston, and had alternative arrangements made for those who’d missed their connecting flights.
British Airways also provided hotel accommodation for those who needed a place to stay before their journey could resume.
They said in a statement: “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.”
The plane developed a minor fault which made it turn back just as it reached Canada. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
It’s probably better to be safe than sorry in situations like this, as if there’s anywhere you don’t want a technical issue impacting your journey it’s thousands of feet up in the sky in a metal bee that’s powered by the refined essence of primordial ooze.
You don’t want to be one of those flights which ends up on the news because something has gone catastrophically wrong and everything is on fire.
Much better to have a bit of a chuckle about a plane which takes off from one airport, crosses an ocean and several hours later ends up right where it started.
Evidently the issues with the plane were not serious enough to necessitate an immediate landing, considering the British Airways flight turned back over the Atlantic Ocean and returned to London.
LADbible has contacted British Airways for further comment.
Featured Image Credit: Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images / Flightradar24