Heathrow runway closed after BA emergency landing
Flights were disrupted at Heathrow on Saturday afternoon after one runway was closed following an emergency landing by a British Airways’ aircraft.
BA295 to Chicago with 293 passengers and 14 crew onboard was forced to return to Heathrow two hours after it took off due to a fault with its landing gear.
Passengers took to Twitter to praise the pilot after he apparently landed the Boeing 747 on three wheels instead of five.
The flight landed at about 5.15pm, after which the runway was closed for about an hour. The airport said this caused ‘some disruption’ to flights.
"Due to a technical issue with an aircraft that needed resolving on the runway following landing, Heathrow operated with only one runway for a short time," it said in a statement, apologising to passengers for the disruption.
A replacement BA aircraft set off to Chicago nine hours after the original departure time.
The airline issued the following statement: "The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority.
"As a precaution, one of our flights returned to Heathrow due to a technical issue. The flight landed safely and after our engineers finished their checks, we moved the aircraft from the runway and our customers were transferred to a replacement aircraft.
"We are sorry for any inconvenience caused."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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