London: A British Airways (BA) flight made a U-turn back to the UK just an hour into its journey from London to Chicago on Monday, according to flight tracking data.
BA said the flight made a safe landing back at London Heathrow following a "technical issue”, with passengers disembarking the aircraft.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and the aircraft landed safely after our highly-trained pilots returned to Heathrow following a technical issue,” said a BA spokesperson.
“Customers disembarked the aircraft normally and our teams are working to get their travel plans back on track as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier, Flight BA295 declared an emergency mid-flight following a sudden and steep descent while flying over Ireland soon after take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport at 1150 am local time.
The Boeing 777-200ER plane had a scheduled flight time of eight hours and 40 minutes to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD).
However, about an hour after take-off, the aircraft had climbed to its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet when it appeared to encounter an issue and was squawking – the international aviation signal for a general emergency.
Flight-tracking data shows the aircraft initiated a rapid descent, dropping 28,000 feet to an altitude of 9,000 feet within minutes.
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