Plane's double diversion has passengers spending almost a full day on board
WASHINGTON — It can be unlucky when a plane has to divert due to a sick passenger or a security incident mid-air.
But a recent flight from the Cayman Islands to the United Kingdom was particularly unlucky as it had to be diverted twice.
Passengers on board BA252 left George Town, Grand Cayman, on time at 6:21 p.m. EST on Tuesday, April 8. From there, the plane had a quick stop in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, to pick up more passengers.
That's when things got complicated.
According to data from tracking website Flightradar24, the Boeing 777 plane made an unplanned stop five hours later in Gander, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The cause was reportedly a sick passenger on board.
Gander is best known for being where many of the planes in the North American airspace made emergency landings on September 11, 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States. Its legacy has been memorialized in the hit Broadway musical 'Come From Away,' which is based on true stories of some of the 7,000 passengers and the locals who took them in.The British Airways plane's journey wasn't complete then, though. Due to the delays, crew members on board were close to hitting their maximum flying time. Therefore, the plane stopped again, this time in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the crew got off and was replaced by a fresh group.Finally, after another two and a half hours in the air, BA252 arrived at London's Heathrow Airport at 10:38 p.m. local time on Wednesday, April 9. Altogether, the trip took almost 23 hours as opposed to its usual run time of about 11. British Airways has been approached for a comment.In pther incidents, a flight from Bali, Indonesia, to Melbourne, Australia, was forced to turn around after a passenger tried to open a plane door over the Indian Ocean.On Tuesday, passengers were evacuated from an American Airlines jet in Georgia after a burning odor and smoke were reported in the cabin.On Wednesday, the FAA announced that a 'stress management team' would be meeting with air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a rash of recent incidents, including a deadly mid-air collision and a control tower fight.Flying does, however, remain the safest way to travel, with millions of people enjoying uneventful journeys every day. — CNN
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