Posted on 10/05/2026 12:19:24 PM PDT by Red Badger
LONDON — A British Airways passenger jet from London to Chicago descended 28,000 feet in just seven minutes on Monday after declaring an emergency because of an unspecified “technical issue,” the airline said.
The Boeing 777 took off at 12:15 p.m. local time (7:15 a.m. ET) but made the descent just 30 minutes later while flying over Ireland, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
It turned around and spent around four hours zig-zagging over the Bristol Channel, a waterway to the west of England, before landing back at London Heathrow Airport at 5 p.m. local time (noon ET).
“The aircraft landed safely after our highly-trained pilots returned to Heathrow following a technical issue,” British Airways said in an emailed statement. “Customers disembarked the aircraft normally and our teams are working to get their travel plans back on track as quickly as possible.”
Heathrow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Passengers will likely be put up in hotels by the airline until another flight can arranged, as stipulated by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority.
Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) came under scrutiny last month after two technical problems in the space of two weeks cause major delays at several U.K. airports and hundreds of flights were canceled.
NATS blamed software issues for the delays which led to criticism of the service from several major airlines.
Britain’s Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also acknowledged the situation was “deeply frustrating” for passengers.
With 84.5 million passengers last year, Heathrow ranked seventh in the table of the world’s busiest airports, according to data published by Airports Council International.
Travel from Heathrow was severely disrupted in March last year when a massive fire at an electricity substation caused a predawn power outage at the global transport hub.
The closure affected more than 1,300 flights and 200,000 passengers.
After investigating 600 items of evidence related to the substation, the National Energy System Operator ruled out suspicious activity in a report saying a preventable moisture fault caused the fire, leaving almost 70,000 homes without power.
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Aviation 777 Ping!................
Technically speaking, muslims are bad for aviation. History demonstrates this.
A British Airways passenger jet from London to Chicago descended 28,000 feet in just seven minutes
A proper encounter with God will have the same effect. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Burning off fuel I imagine, to get to max landing weight.
These new-fangled aircraft don't have dump valves? - or maybe the greenies prohibit dumping fuel...
Is Muhammad a technical issue?
RE: It turned around and spent around four hours zig-zagging over the Bristol Channel...
The Out of Towners with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.
“As their jet approaches Kennedy airport, Gwen and George eagerly plan their meal at the Four Seasons — but traffic’s backed up and the plane circles and circles, it seems interminably. It happens all the time, a salty air traveler tells our principals. “I figure just circling,” he says cheerfully, “I’m two years older.”
“Their flight is forced to circle JFK Airport for hours before it’s diverted to the Logan Airport in Boston and then requiring them to take a train ride back to the Big Apple causing them to arrive there very late.”
Something wrong with the Russian jet fuel...?
UK to set end date for imports of Russian diesel and jet fuel via third countries
January 2027.
After US midterms.
Coinkydink...?
Takes a while to dump fuel.
Could passengers on these flights that descend rapidly qualify as passing the first phase of astronaut training? To simulate weightless conditions they have astronauts drift in the cargo section of planes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Training_Aircraft
Mark Kelly can hand out anti-American Marxist leaflets urging them to defy orders of the US government and commanders.
So, 4,000 fpm. That's beyond the range of most vertical velocity indicators. Were they under control during this dive? Captain Steeeve will have this on his show in a day or two and he was captain of a 777 for years.
You said it better than me.
Snackbar Fubar.
A 4000 fpm descent is not a dive, but that is quite fast.
I have a feeling they lost thrust and had a controlled descent, but regained engine power before it was too late
My late mother might have qualified. She was flying over the Pacific and the plane hit an air pocket and it plunged a good way before it caught air again. She said she screamed when it was dropping.
I was on a United flight from Chicago to Spokane in 87 that lost cabin pressure at 36K feet. Except the O2 masks in the main cabin did not deploy. So, the pilot went into an emergency decent and leveled out at 10K’. IF we had stayed at the higher elevation all the air in the cabin would have eventually leaked out.
We eventually landed in Billings, MT.
I got a flight out later that day. As did a few others. Everyone else spent the night in Billings. United flew another jet in the next morning. It made the news.
Then in one instant I was pasted to the ceiling, falling out of the sky at past the scale on the VSI. I lost 5000 feet in about 30 seconds. Loose change, lost pencils, old gum wrappers from the 70's were floating about the cabin.
I trained in Florida. I had never experienced mountain flying. The 80 knot winds were slamming into the mountains, pushing the air upward at an insane rate. The moment I crossed that mountain ridge, I was configured for almost full nose down flight. It was like I was shot out of a cannon toward the ground.
Lesson learned. On my off days I decided to brush up on mountain flying hazards. I also filed for much higher altitudes. My best guess was I was only about 1000 feet from terrain impact. ATC was also notably concerned with my perilous position. We all figured it out and went on with matters at hand.
Regards,
“This is WZAZ in Chicago, where disco lives forever....”
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