British Airways plane makes U-turn four hours into journey due to ‘technical issue’

A whole bunch of British Airways passengers spent the night time flying from Gatwick to central Egypt and back after their plane turned around halfway through its flight to Mauritius.

The Boeing 777 left Gatwick at 7.38pm on Tuesday night time for what should have been a 12-hour, 6,050-mile flight south of the Equator.

The aircraft flew usually over France, Switzerland, Italy and the Mediterranean earlier than getting into Egyptian airspace and flying near the Nile.

However at round midnight GMT, the plane rotated and flew again on virtually precisely the identical course. The airline later stated it was “due to a technical situation”.

Moderately than touching down at on the tropical Indian Ocean island of Mauritius on Wednesday morning, the passengers discovered themselves again on the West Sussex airport at 4.45am.

The flight has been rescheduled for 4pm on Wednesday. If it operates as anticipated, the passengers will lastly attain their vacation spot greater than 20 hours late.

On the different finish of the route, a whole lot of passengers discover themselves with an sudden further day in Mauritius.

They have been advised by e mail: “Regardless of our greatest efforts, we’ve made the tough choice to delay your departure to London Gatwick in a single day due to a technical situation with the outbound plane.

“We don’t underestimate the inconvenience this may trigger. We’re actually sorry for the change to your journey plans and we’ll do all the things we are able to to assist.

“Your new estimated departure time is now 10:05 native time on 8 December, arriving at 18:25 native time on 8 December.

“You’ll be able to declare affordable prices for lodge lodging, native transportation and any important objects it’s possible you’ll require in a single day.

“We’ll additionally cowl the price of meals as much as £20 per meal for adults and £10 for kids below 12 years of age and as much as £25 for phone prices/web entry.”

The message makes no point out of the £520 in compensation that British Airways should pay to every passenger below European air passengers’ rights rules in the event that they arrive three hours late or extra as a consequence of a technical situation.

A spokesperson for BA stated: “​Our pilots determined to return to Gatwick as a precaution as a consequence of a minor technical situation, and the plane landed usually.

“We now have apologised to our prospects for the disruption to their journey and our groups have organized a substitute plane to get everybody on their approach as shortly as potential.”