BA passengers stuck on nine-hour ‘flight to nowhere’ after minor fault

Passengers were stuck on a nine-hour “flight to nowhere” after a British Airways plane from London to Texas was forced to turn around in mid-air.

The flight departed from Heathrow Airport at 10am on Monday and had reached Newfoundland, Canada, when a minor technical issue forced it to turn back.

It meant passengers on flight BA195 travelled 4,834 miles only to arrive back in the UK at 7pm.

BA apologised to customers for the “disruption” and rebooked them on alternative flights to Houston.

Warning message

The plane had been approaching Canada when one of its Rolls-Royce Trent engines flagged a warning message, The Times reported.

It is not believed to have posed an immediate safety risk, but the crew chose to return to the UK to carry out inspection and engineering work.

A spokesman for BA told The Times: “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.”

An earlier problem

The same aircraft was forced to make a diversion in October when a passenger’s mobile phone fell into a seat and began filling the cabin with smoke.

On that occasion, the jet was flying from Tokyo to London. It was forced to divert to Anchorage, Alaska, and passengers arrived in the UK 33 hours late.

In January, another BA plane was forced to turn around three hours into a flight to Delhi and return to the UK after seven hours in the air.

The term “flight to nowhere” refers to an aircraft that takes off from and returns to the same airport.