British Airways flight compelled to return to Gatwick as mid-air emergency declared
British Airways has issued a statement after one of its flights found for Majorca was forced to return to Gatwick on Sunday following reports of a mid-air emergency
Flight BA2672 was forced to turn back towards Gatwick Airport(Image: Getty Images)
A British Airways flight was forced to made a U-turn over France after declaring a mid-air emergency while heading to Majorca.
Flight BA2672 was forced to turn back towards Gatwick Airport around 40 minutes after taking off. The Airbus A320 was bound for Palma de Mallorca Airport and left Gatwick at 4.23pm on Sunday, landing back at 6pm.
The aircraft, which can fit up to 180 passengers, was over central France when flight crew received a notification of a landing gear control system failure, Air Live reports. A review of the problem indicated it could not be resolved by maintenance crews at Palma de Mallorca Airport and so the aircraft had to turn back.
The aircraft was over central France when flight crew received a notification of a landing gear control system failure(Image: AirNav)
A general emergency was alerted to air traffic control after pilots issued a squawk 7700 code out. The aircraft then landed back at Gatwick where it was met by emergency ground crews who were waiting as a standard safety precaution.
Affected passengers were provided with accommodation overnight and the flight it set to take off to Palma de Mallorca later today.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: “The aircraft safely returned to London Gatwick following a technical issue.
“We have apologised to customers for the delay to their journey and our teams provided overnight accommodation. The flight will depart later today.”
Meanwhile, a ‘general emergency’ code was transmitted from a TUI flight heading towards Newcastle at around 17,900 feet shortly before 1am on Monday morning. The flight from Spanish island Lanzarote, to Newcastle landed safely in the north east of England, flight tracking data suggests.
Pilots transmitted a 7700 ‘squawk code’ shortly before landing at 17,900 ft, FlightRadar24 data said.
The TUI flight BY1767 was scheduled to depart from Lanzarote at 8:05pm on Sunday (November 1), but actually took off at 9:24pm, records show. It was due to touch down in Newcastle at 12:30am on Monday, but landed at 1:16am instead.
The nature of the emergency has not been identified. A 7700 code can mean a variety of incidents have taken place, aviation experts say.
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