A BRITISH Airways jet travelling from London to Los Angeles circled over the Irish Sea for almost two hours on Saturday so that it could dump aviation fuel before returning to Heathrow airport, after developing fuel system problems.
The pilot of BA flight 269 declared an emergency less than an hour after taking off from Heathrow on its 11-hour flight to Los Angeles.
While the Boeing 747-400 jet was over Scotland, the crew reported problems with the aircraft’s fuel system and made a U-turn, before carrying out a series of circuits at 33,000ft over the Irish Sea.
The 747 was about 100 miles northwest of Glasgow at about 6pm when the crew reported the difficulties and decided to return to London.
The aircraft dumped tens of thousands of litres of aviation fuel to reduce its weight for a safe landing.
After initially turning around, the jet began heading southeast over England but turned west just north of Liverpool and began heading towards Dublin. It had been thought the jet might make an emergency landing at Dublin or Shannon airport but the aircraft then routed north by Drogheda and carried out two-high-altitude circuits over the Irish Sea.
The aircraft spent more than 90 minutes circling off the Irish east coast, shuttling between the Irish and Scottish coasts and circling the Isle of Man, before it routed towards London for a safe landing.
Pilots are occasionally forced to jettison fuel to lighten an aircraft’s weight in emergency situations.
British Airways has said: “There was no risk and the aircraft returned as a precautionary measure.”
It has been reported that singer Victoria Beckham (36) was on the flight and was “shaken and upset” by the ordeal.