British Airways London-Chicago flight descends to 9,000 ft over Ireland, declares emergency

Flight-tracking data showed the plane, after making the steep descent to around 9,000 feet over Ireland, turned back towards the UK

British Airways flight BA295, operating from London to Chicago, declared an emergency on Monday after squawking 7700 and descending to an altitude of 9,000 feet while flying over Ireland, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. The aircraft landed back at Heathrow airport after 4 hr 47 minutes in the air, the flight tracker showed.

Squawk 7700 is the internationally recognised transponder code used by aircraft to indicate a general emergency. The reason for the emergency has not been made public so far.

The Boeing 777-200ER plane had a scheduled flight time of eight hours and 40 minutes to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), reported PTI.

However, about an hour after take-off, Flightradar24 data showed the aircraft had climbed to its cruising altitude of 37,000 feet when it appeared to encounter an issue and began squawking 7700, the international transponder code for a general emergency. Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft then initiated a rapid descent, dropping 28,000 feet to an altitude of 9,000 feet within minutes.

Flight makes turns over English Channel

After making the steep descent to around 9,000 feet over Ireland, the aircraft turned back towards the UK instead of continuing its journey to Chicago. It subsequently flew south of Wales and over south-western England before making several turns over the English Channel, as it headed back towards London.

This comes days after the flydubai incident involving flight FZ1073, which was bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai and plunged 17,400 feet in just under two minutes. It was later learnt that the incident was allegedly caused by the co-pilot attempting to crash the plane after attacking Captain Smit Machchhar.

The Boeing 737-8 was carrying 174 passengers, including children. The aircraft was eventually diverted to Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The aircraft's circling over Europe could potentially be related to fuel management. If a flight needs to return to its departure airport soon after take-off, pilots may need to reduce the aircraft's weight before landing, either by burning fuel while circling or, where appropriate, dumping fuel.

However, HT could not independently confirm that BA295 is dumping fuel.