British Airways A380 returns to London after spending six hours in the air  

A British Airways Airbus A380 has been forced to return to London after suffering a technical fault on a flight to Miami. Passengers onboard the affected flight spent six hours in the air before the plane landed back where it had first embarked from earlier in the day.  

The flight concerned was British Airways flight BA209 from London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Miami International Airport (MIA) on Thursday, December 5, 2024. The flight was being operated by one of the carrier’s 12-strong fleet of Airbus A380s, registered as G-XLEF. The flight is one of two run daily by the airline between its main base at Heathrow and the Floridian city. 

Flight BA209 departed from Heathrow at 16:39 GMT, already almost an hour after its scheduled departure time of 15:30 GMT. Data analyzed from Flightradar shows that the aircraft headed north over England and Scotland before coasting out over the Outer Hebrides and the North Atlantic. At this point, the aircraft had already reached its initial cruising altitude of 37,000ft (11,280m). It then continued westwards, passing to the south of Iceland and heading to the southernmost tip of Greenland. 

However, at 19:45 GMT, around three hours and 15 minutes after take-off from Heathrow, the aircraft made a swift 180-degree turn and began heading back to its point of origin. It followed a more southern track than its outbound routing, and re-entered UK airspace at around 21:30, After descending over the west of England, the aircraft made its approach back into Heathrow, where it eventually landed at 22:39 GMT, six hours after it had departed from the same airport.  

Flightradar24The aircraft is understood to have taxied back in under its own power and parked on a stand at the airport’s Terminal Five to allow passengers to disembark. According to Airlive.net, the technical issue may have been engine-related, with the website stating that the crew had been forced to shut down the aircraft’s number three Rolls-Royce engine.  

AeroTime has reached out to British Airways for further explanation of the nature of the incident that resulted in the turnback. As of the time of writing, the aircraft in question remains on the ground at Heathrow, although it is listed on Flightradar24 as having been assigned to operate BA207, also to Miami, on December 7, 2024.  

This latest incident comes as British Airways continues to battle with technical issues relating to its Rolls-Royce-powered A380 fleet. On November 6, 2024, another of the airline’s A380s (G-XLEC) returned to Heathrow just minutes after setting off for Miami with engine issues. This incident followed the aircraft having just returned from three weeks of maintenance checks.  

Rosedale7175 / Wikimedia CommonsIn early October, another of the carrier’s A380s had just returned from two and a half months of maintenance only to be taken out of service again the following day, having completed only two flights. 

On October 26th, the carrier’s A380 G-XLEA was forced to return to Dallas-Fort Worth after dumping fuel following a hydraulic issue. The aircraft positioned back empty to Heathrow five days later to resume services.  

British Airways is also having to make major adjustments to its 2025 schedules following ongoing issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet, as previously reported by AeroTime.   

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