British Airways flight returns to Heathrow after emergency descent

A British Airways flight bound for Chicago returned to London Heathrow Airport on Monday after declaring an emergency because of a technical issue and descending sharply over Ireland, according to NBC News. The Boeing 777 landed safely, and passengers disembarked normally, the airline said.

The plane took off from Heathrow at 12:15 p.m. local time and made the descent about 30 minutes later, according to flight-tracking data cited by NBC. NBC reported that it lost 28,000 feet of altitude in seven minutes. CBS News, also citing flight data, put the drop at 27,000 feet, from 36,000 feet to 9,000 feet, over several minutes. CBS said the descent appeared to be controlled.

The aircraft turned back over Ireland but did not fly directly to Heathrow. NBC reported that it spent around four hours zigzagging over the Bristol Channel, west of England, before landing at about 5 p.m. local time. CBS said flight data showed the plane circling for a few hours, apparently to burn off fuel.

“The aircraft landed safely after our highly-trained pilots returned to Heathrow following a technical issue,” British Airways said in a statement provided to NBC. “Customers disembarked the aircraft normally and our teams are working to get their travel plans back on track as quickly as possible.”

The airline did not specify the technical issue in the accounts reported by NBC and CBS. It also did not say in its statement how many people were on board or when they would continue their journeys. Heathrow did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment.

NBC reported that passengers would likely be put up in hotels until another flight could be arranged, citing U.K. Civil Aviation Authority rules. British Airways said its teams were working to restore customers’ travel plans but gave no timetable.

The return followed separate disruptions to air travel in Britain, NBC reported. Two technical problems involving the National Air Traffic Service in the previous month caused major delays at several U.K. airports and led to hundreds of flight cancellations. The service blamed software issues, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the situation for passengers as “deeply frustrating.” NBC did not link those problems to the British Airways flight.

Heathrow handled 84.5 million passengers last year, ranking seventh among the world’s busiest airports, according to Airports Council International data cited by NBC. A separate power outage at the airport in March last year affected more than 1,300 flights and 200,000 passengers. Neither that outage nor the air traffic service disruptions were identified as a cause of Monday’s emergency.