Second British Airways flight in one day makes emergency landing
A flight from Mumbai was the second British Airways service in a day to perform an emergency landing.
BA flight 134 declared an emergency 35 minutes after taking off for London Heathrow and was forced to return to Mumbai.
It landed safely at 2.10pm, with fire engines waiting on standby, according to Mumbai Airport spokesperson.
The emergency status was withdrawn at 2.39pm.
A British Airways spokesperson said the emergency landing was “a precaution after a technical issue” and that all passengers had been rebooked onto alternative services and, where necessary, provided with overnight accommodation.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the aircraft take off and set out before circling several times and returning to Mumbai on 14 October.
It’s the second time in three days that flight BA134 was hit by a technical problem – on 12 October it landed at 9.25pm, a delay of more than four hours.
It is also the second time in one day that a British Airways flight had to perform an emergency landing.
Flight BA548 took off normally from Heathrow shortly before 9am for the 900-mile flight to Rome’s Fiumicino airport.
But after less than 20 minutes, shortly after the Airbus A321 had crossed the Channel coast at Dungeness, the crew “squawked 7700” – the international code indicating an emergency to air-traffic controllers.
The aircraft circled over the English Channel then returned to Heathrow, being given priority clearance to land at British Airways’ main base.
A BA spokesperson said: “We’re sorry for the delay in our customers’ travel plans after their aircraft had to return to Heathrow as a precaution after a minor technical issue.
“Our teams on the ground are looking after our customers whilst we source another aircraft to continue their journey.”
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