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British Airways passengers have been compelled to endure an 11-hour “flight to nowhere” when a Boeing 777-200 plane developed a “technical difficulty” on Sunday morning.
Flight BA31 from London to Hong Kong was over 4 hours into the 12h 45m journey when the choice was made to return to its departure airport.
Knowledge from monitoring web site FlightRadar24 reveals that the service was flying at 35,000ft over Turkmenistan when the 23-year-old Boeing 777-200 was circled by the crew.
The flight departed for Hong Kong Worldwide from Heathrow Airport on Saturday night (29 June) at 8.55pm.
Upon returning to the London runway 11 hours later – solely two hours lower than the unique total flight time – the Hong Kong service was cancelled.
London Heathrow is British Airways’ dwelling base with an onsite upkeep workforce established to make repairs.
The airline stated in a press release: “The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution as a consequence of a minor technical difficulty.
“It landed safely and clients disembarked as regular. We’ve apologised to our clients for the disruption to their journey.”
On Sunday, the rescheduled BA31 flight once more didn’t land as deliberate when it was diverted to Budapest three hours into the journey as a consequence of a medical emergency onboard.
It’s not the primary time technical points have compelled a flight to show round within the final yr.
A British Airways service from London to Texas turned again simply because the plane reached North America, leading to passengers enduring a nine-hour flight to nowhere.
A “flight to nowhere” refers to any flight that finally ends up touchdown again at its departure airport with out stopping off elsewhere.
Flight information present that the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, headed to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, had simply crossed the Canadian border earlier than backtracking earlier this month.
Final November, Air New Zealand was compelled to function an 11-hour “flight to nowhere” after a airplane carrying passengers developed a technical fault.
Flight NZ26 from Auckland to Chicago was 4 hours into the 15-hour scheduled flight on Wednesday (8 November) when the choice was made to show again.