London: Passengers on a British Airways flight from London to Texas found themselves on an unexpected nine-hour journey that ended right back where it started. The flight, BA195, departed from Heathrow Airport at 10am on Monday but was forced to turn back mid-air due to a technical issue.
The plane had reached Newfoundland, Canada, when a warning message from one of its Rolls-Royce Trent engines prompted the crew to make the decision to return to London. Although the issue did not pose an immediate safety risk, the crew decided to return to the UK for inspection and necessary engineering work.
Passengers ended up travelling 4,834 miles only to land back at Heathrow Airport at 7pm the same day. British Airways has apologised for the disruption and rebooked the passengers on alternative flights to Houston.
As per a report by The New York Times, a spokesperson for British Airways 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.”
This incident is not the first time this particular aircraft has experienced problems. In October, the same plane was diverted when a passenger’s mobile phone fell into a seat and caused the cabin to fill with smoke. During this incident, the flight from Tokyo to London had to divert to Anchorage, Alaska, resulting in a 33-hour delay for passengers.
In another incident in January, a British Airways flight to Delhi was forced to turn around three hours into the journey, spending a total of seven hours in the air before returning to the UK.
The term “flight to nowhere” is used to describe a situation where a flight departs from and returns to the same airport. In this case, British Airways made arrangements for the affected passengers, rebooking them on the next available flights and providing lodging and instructions on how to claim other expenses.