Latest news with #GanderInternationalAirport
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
British Airways flight suffers double diversion on way to London after medical emergency
Passengers flying from the Bahamas to London took around 11 hours longer than expected to reach their destination after being diverted not once but twice along the way. British Airways flight BA252 departed from Grand Cayman Island at 6.21pm EST on Tuesday 8 April for its usual one-hour leg to the Bahamian capital, Nassau, which then took off again for the longer eight-hour leg to London. The flight was going as planned flying over the Atlantic Ocean when it ended up being diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada, after a passenger experienced a medical issue. After a five-hour journey, the flight landed in Gander, however, the time now was running short on the legally permitted number of hours the crew could operate the flight. A decision was then made for the Boeing 777 to land at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland so that a new crew could operate the aircraft to London safely. After just under a three-hour flight from Gander to Reykjavik, passengers then finally completed their journey with a two hours and 20 minutes flight to the UK capital, landing in London at 10.38pm BST on 9 April, data from FlightRadar24 shows. The journey from Nassau to London took 11 hours more than expected due to both diversions, after leaving the Bahamas at 10.24pm EDT (3.24am BST) on 8 April and landing in London 19 hours later. For those journeying all the way from Grand Cayman to London, their flight time would have stretched even longer, having departed at 6.21pm EST (12.21am BST), meaning the total journey would have been around 22 hours. Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, said: 'Clearly pilots will always make the optimum choice for the health of the passengers. But this can trigger difficult consequences for the remaining passengers and crew – as well as tens of thousands of pounds in costs for the airline. 'The decision to deploy a new crew to Iceland was evidently chosen by British Airways as the least-bad option. I presume other possibilities, such as staying on the ground at Gander and resting the crew there, were also considered but dismissed. 'Anecdotally, medical diversions are happening more frequently – which is what one would expect as the flying population skews older. 'Travellers who want to minimise the risk of being on a plane that has a medical diversion should opt for the lowest-capacity aircraft, such as the JetBlue narrow-bodied jets between the US and UK. 'Bluntly: the fewer fellow passengers on the aircraft, the lower the chances of one of them falling seriously ill.' The Independent has contacted British Airways for comment.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
A British Airways plane made 2 diversions in a single Transatlantic journey after a medical emergency
There was a medical emergency on board a British Airways flight from the Bahamas to London. The flight was diverted to Canada but soon carried on towards its destination. However, it diverted again to Iceland to pick up a new crew due to the original crew timing out. More than 200 British Airways passengers were delayed by 11 hours after unexpectedly stopping twice on their way home from the Caribbean. Tuesday's Flight 252 left Nassau in the Bahamas around 10:30 p.m. local time, bound for London. Four hours later, the Boeing 777 was flying over the North Atlantic when it abruptly turned west toward Canada, according to data from Flightradar24. It diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland and Labrador, which is usually only home to small regional planes. A source familiar with the situation told Business Insider that the plane had to divert due to a medical emergency. After the customer deplaned, the flight took off again less than three hours later, per Flightradar24 data. However, while the flight was again listed as heading to London Heathrow Airport, it actually flew to Iceland first. After a roughly three-hour flight, the 28-year-old Boeing 777 landed at Keflavik Airport in the capital, Reykjavík. It then didn't take off again for more than six hours. BI understands that due to the first diversion, the flight crew was set to exceed their maximum amount of working hours. So British Airways got creative and arranged for the flight to stop in Iceland — where it was easier to send a replacement crew than it would have been to Canada. From there, it was another two hours and 20 minutes to the final destination. The Boeing 777 landed in London around 10:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday. It was initially scheduled to arrive at 11:40 a.m. It appears that the original pilots and flight attendants had to stay in Iceland overnight before returning to London. In medical emergencies such as this, pilots typically have no choice but to land at the nearest airport. That's unlike some technical problems when they can return to a hub airport where it's easier to reroute passengers and crew. Diverting twice is certainly unusual, but it looks like it ultimately saved the passengers time. Last May, an Air France flight from Paris to Seattle diverted to Canada's Nunavut territory — and had to wait 11 hours for a replacement plane to pick passengers up. Earlier this month, Virgin Atlantic passengers were delayed 40 hours after a medical emergency forced them to divert to a small airport in Turkey — where the plane then had to undergo technical inspections. Read the original article on Business Insider
The Independent
10-04-2025
- The Independent
British Airways flight suffers double diversion on way to London after medical emergency
Passengers flying from the Bahamas to London took around 11 hours longer than expected to reach their destination after being diverted not once but twice along the way. British Airways flight BA252 departed from Grand Cayman Island at 6.21pm EST on Tuesday 8 April for its usual one-hour leg to the Bahamian capital, Nassau, which then took off again for the longer eight-hour leg to London. The flight was going as planned flying over the Atlantic Ocean when it ended up being diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada, after a passenger experienced a medical issue. After a five-hour journey, the flight landed in Gander, however, the time now was running short on the legally permitted number of hours the crew could operate the flight. A decision was then made for the Boeing 777 to land at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland so that a new crew could operate the aircraft to London safely. After just under a three-hour flight from Gander to Reykjavik, passengers then finally completed their journey with a two hours and 20 minutes flight to the UK capital, landing in London at 10.38pm BST on 9 April, data from FlightRadar24 shows. The journey from Nassau to London took 11 hours more than expected due to both diversions, after leaving the Bahamas at 10.24pm EDT (3.24am BST) on 8 April and landing in London 19 hours later. For those journeying all the way from Grand Cayman to London, their flight time would have stretched even longer, having departed at 6.21pm EST (12.21am BST), meaning the total journey would have been around 22 hours. Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, said: 'Clearly pilots will always make the optimum choice for the health of the passengers. But this can trigger difficult consequences for the remaining passengers and crew – as well as tens of thousands of pounds in costs for the airline. 'The decision to deploy a new crew to Iceland was evidently chosen by British Airways as the least-bad option. I presume other possibilities, such as staying on the ground at Gander and resting the crew there, were also considered but dismissed. 'Anecdotally, medical diversions are happening more frequently – which is what one would expect as the flying population skews older. 'Travellers who want to minimise the risk of being on a plane that has a medical diversion should opt for the lowest-capacity aircraft, such as the JetBlue narrow-bodied jets between the US and UK. 'Bluntly: the fewer fellow passengers on the aircraft, the lower the chances of one of them falling seriously ill.'
