On Monday, British Airways flight BA295, flying from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare, declared an emergency after crashing from its cruising altitude over Ireland. Flight-tracking data revealed that the Boeing 777 had fallen to about 9,000ft, but after a turn it regained a course towards London.
The 7700 was the international transponder code issued by the aircraft to send an airmanship-to-air traffic control notification a general emergency. The code does not recognise the nature of the problem, but indicates that crew assistance and priority treatment is needed.
Aircraft Descends Rapidly Over Ireland
Flight tracking data show that before the aircraft turned down to make its descent, it was cruising at a much greater speed. The plane then stopped flying from the Atlantic Ocean and started flying back to London Heathrow.
British Airways is yet to officially state what the emergency was. There was no immediate confirmation as to the cause of this incident, although a rapid descent might have been caused by a number of operational and technical factors.
Available tracking data indicates that the flight was made on a Boeing 777-200ER.
Incident came days after Flydubai Emergency
The BA295 incident follows another airline emergency flight that took place days ago, with another flight of flydubai. On September 30, the plane announced a distress call and was diverted to Tabuk en route to Tel Aviv.
International attention was drawn to the incident as the aircraft from the flydubai airline was seen travelling the long distance in a major descent. But they are independent of each other and there is no evidence of any linkage between the two events.
Trainspotters are expected to be able to give more details on the reason for the emergency on the British Airways flight and the status of passengers and crew onboard the stage.