BA flight ‘declares emergency’ after leaving Heathrow, then flies across whole of London for emergency landing
On 3rd October, British Airways Airbus A319 flight BA1496 to Glasgow was forced to turn back to Heathrow, after declaring an emergency 9 minutes after take off. According to reports, no Pan-pan signal was declared but the pilots ‘were wearing oxygen masks’. The flight was scheduled to leave London at 9.40pm, but took off at 10.20pm. The plane took off towards the west, turned north and circled round London, did a loop around east London, before approaching Heathrow – flying right across the middle of London, over tens or hundreds of thousands of people – to land safely on the southern runway. A the time of the emergency, the plane was at approximately 10,000ft. The reason for the emergency has not yet been released. This brings back memories of a flight in May 2013 that had an engine problem (caused by faults on maintenance, due to technicians been too tired….) which caused one engine to catch fire. The plane flew right across London, visibly trailing smoke all the way, using just one engine. There are many more flights that return to Heathrow with problems, about which we never hear. These raise serious concerns about the location of SUCH a busy airport – let alone its plans to increase numbers of flights by 50%.
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Heathrow Airport: British Airways flight ‘declares emergency’ minutes after departing London
Flight BA1496, an Airbus A319, was bound for Scotland but has returned to runway 27L and landed safely [but it flew right across London, in order to land – over tens of thousands of people].
By Ian Hughes (My London New)
3 OCT 2019
The flight was scheduled to leave London at 9.40pm, but took off at 10.20pm
British Airways flight BA1496 has been forced to turn back to Heathrow Airport after declaring an emergency nine minutes after take off.
According to reports, no Pan-pan signal was declared but the pilots ‘were wearing oxygen masks’.
The flight, an Airbus A319, was bound for Glasgow but has now ‘returned to runway 27L and landed safely’.
The path taken by flight BA1496
After landing back at Heathrow Airport, the plane appears to have left the runway safely – according to flight tracking data.
A the time of the emergency, the plane was at approximately 10,000ft.
The reason for the emergency has not yet been released but London Heathrow Airport and British Airways have both been contacted for comment.
https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/heathrow-airport-british-airways-flight-17029338
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See earlier:
Damaged BA plane on one engine and trailing smoke from the other, flies right across London for emergency landing at Heathrow
A British Airways flight (BA 762) from Heathrow to Oslo was forced to turn back immediately after take off, due to what is likely to have been bird strike. The Airbus A319 was powered by two IAE V2500 engines. The left engine appears to have hit an object at take-off, which stripped off the engine cowling. The right engine then may have hit something, and there are observer accounts of a bang. The plane did a large loop around London, in order to land again, using only the left engine. Many observers saw, and recorded, the plane – trailing smoke from the right engine, as it flew right across London. The plane made a safe landing, though passengers were evacuated down emergency chutes, and there were only 3 minor injuries. Heathrow airport was disrupted for hours due to the emergency landing. While those in favour of expanding the airport are likely to use this dangerous incident to call for more airport capacity (so Heathrow can cope with incidents without delays) it would be more relevant and more responsible to question how safe it is to have disabled planes flying miles over densely populated London. Luckily this time, there was no crash. With Heathrow airport hoping to get another runway (or two) the safety issue of flying more and more planes over hundreds of thousands of people has to be confronted.
https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2013/05/engine-fire-heathrow/
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from article at
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Is the fact the plane still had one functioning engine, so was in theory quite safe, enough reassurance about the risks to Londoners of SO many planes flying over them?
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