Technical problem: British Airways Boeing 777 returns to take-off site after eleven hours

British Airways flight BA31 was supposed to take passengers from London Heathrow to Hong Kong in 12 and a half hours. The flight leaves London shortly after 7pm and normally lands in the Asian capital the following afternoon at 3:20pm. Not so on Sunday (June 30).

The flight was already delayed and didn't take off from Great Britain until 8:55 p.m. And even then things didn't go according to plan. If you were one of the lucky ones who fell asleep as soon as the flight took off and woke up shortly before landing, you might have been in for a nasty surprise on this flight.

Small technical issue, big impact

Because: After about eleven hours in the air, the Boeing 777 with registration G-YMMI was not over Asia. But back in London. And when the 23-year-old plane was already over Turkmenistan, it turned away from it, data from flight-tracking services shows, as first reported by The Independent.

“The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue,” British Airways said of the incident. “It landed safely and passengers were able to disembark as normal. We have apologised to our customers for the disruption to their travel.”

bad luck twice

Flights like this to nowhere happen all the time. There could be a variety of reasons why a cockpit crew might decide to turn back even though they’ve already been flying for a long time. Often – and perhaps also in the case of BA31 – it’s because the airline has better maintenance infrastructure at its home airport. In the worst case, the spare parts would have to be flown to another location, potentially leading to further irregularities.

However, the passengers on the Hong Kong flight were not so lucky twice. Because the flight the next day did not reach its destination without problems. This time the reason was a medical emergency on board. The plane was diverted to Budapest. Despite the stoppage, the Boeing landed in Hong Kong with a delay of only 1.20 hours.