A British Airways Airbus A319 (G-EU0E) with flight BA762 from London Heathrow to Oslo suffered apparent engine damage on the right hand engine shortly after takeoff.
Image – Sky News
After circling, with the aircraft making a success landing back at Heathrow on runway 09L/27R.
The flightpath can be seen on FlightAware at http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW762/history/20130524/0655Z/EGLL/ENGM
Passengers were evacuated by emergency slides on the left hand side of the aircraft upon landing.
Twitter User TBoneGallagher caught the action at https://twitter.com/TBoneGallagher with some stunning pictures
Images – https://twitter.com/TBoneGallagher
Both runways were closed for a short while before the other runway was reopened to landing traffic.
British Airways in a statement said:
“The BA762, Heathrow to Oslo service, returned back to Heathrow shortly after take-off due to a technical fault.”
“The aircraft landed safely and emergency slides were deployed, we are currently caring for our customers. Emergency services attended the aircraft. We will be carrying out a full investigation into the incident.”
Knock on delays at Heathrow are going to be inentivatable sadly, with the BA short haul flight programme scrapped until 16:00BST today, and major delays everywhere else.
As the UK enters the Bank Holiday weekend, and the Half term, this incident doesn’t make things easier.
What matters most is the plane made to the ground safely, and that all 75 passengers and crew aboard that plane managed to evacuate safely.
*right