A United Airlines flight bound for San Francisco made a dramatic turnaround back to Heathrow after “fumes” filled up the plane’s food preparation area.
Flight UA949 took off from London Heathrow at 12.45pm on Wednesday 30 July for an 11-hour flight to the Californian city.
The Boeing 777 managed only 27 minutes in the air before unexpectedly returning to its departure base.
The plane reached as far as Milton Keynes, then ditched its flight path and looped back to London, flight tracking data shows.
United Airlines told The Independent: “United flight 949 from London Heathrow to San Francisco returned to London shortly after take-off to address fumes in the aircraft’s galley.”
The galley is the area in which cabin crew prepare food and store trolleys, and is where the toilets are typically found.
“The flight landed safely, passengers deplaned normally at the gate, and we’re working to get our customers to their destinations as soon as possible.”
After landing, three fire engines met the plane on the taxiway. There were 272 passengers onboard at the time, along with 13 crew members.
Heathrow airport confirmed that the plane landed safely and did not have a wider impact on flight operations that day.
After the diversion back to the airport, the flight was ultimately cancelled. The aircraft is still at London Heathrow and is expected to take off at 8.50pm on Thursday 31 July, FlightRadar shows.
Heathrow, along with all other UK airports, were disrupted yesterday due to an unrelated air traffic control issue.
The incident comes just days after another United Airlines flight was forced to immediately divert back to Washington Dulles Airport after a mechanical issue.
The Munich-bound flight took off at 5.40pm local time on Friday, 25 July, yet circled back to the airport moments later.
The airline confirmed that the flight returned to the ground shortly after take-off to “address a mechanical issue”.
All 219 passengers and 11 crew members deplaned as normal at the gate after the aircraft landed safely.
“The flight was subsequently cancelled, and we arranged alternate travel arrangements to take customers to their destination as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the airline added.
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