British Airways flight makes emergency landing as fumes detected in cockpit

21 January 2024 , 12:19

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The flight, which had been scheduled to land in Prague just after 10am, only made it as far as the town of Dover (Image: Getty Images)

A British Airways flight has been forced to turn around and make an emergency landing an hour into a flight to Prague after fumes reportedly leaked into the cockpit.

British Airways flight BA854 was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow an hour after taking off from the same airport at 7.25am today. The flight, which had been scheduled to land in Prague, in the Czech Republic, just after 10am, only made it as far as the town of Dover before it was forced to abort the trip and turn back toward London.

Fight path data from FlightRadar24 shows the plane began to turn shortly after it passed over Dover, turning around over the Strait of Dover and heading back to the UK.

Initially the planed seemed to be on course towards London City Airport but after last minute change of direction the aircraft returned to Heathrow, where it landed safely at at 8.41am.

Several fire engines rushed to meet the jet as it landed at Heathrow, video footage captured by a livestreaming service and shared to YouTube shows the emergency crews rushing to assist the aircraft.

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FlightRadar24 shows the plane turning around over the Strait of Dover

A British Airways spokesperson blamed a ‘technical issue’ for the quick about-turn, though they did not specify what had caused the pilots to choose to return to Heathrow.

They told the Mirror: “We're sorry for the delay in our customers' journey after the aircraft returned to Heathrow as a precaution Our teams looked after them whilst they waited to board a replacement aircraft to continue their journey.”

Joe Smith