Flight with rudder issue diverts to Shannon as it was unable to land in Heathrow
A transatlantic flight as forced to divert to Shannon Airport this afternoon after the crew reported a technical issue that would prevent them from landing at their destination.
British Airways flight BA-274 left Las Vegas in the US at 4.40am Irish time and was due to land at London’s Heathrow Airport at 2.55pm.
At around 12.30 pm however, while the flight was still west of Ireland, the flight crew of the Boeing 747-400 jet contacted to advise them of an issue.
The pilots confirmed they had a ‘slight technical problem’ that would affect their crosswind landing capability at Heathrow and therefore they would be unable to land there.
It is understood the flight crew reported a possible problem with the jet’s rudder which would have impacted their crosswind landing capability in London where the effects of Storm Brendan were still being felt.
The crew opted to divert and land Shannon as a precaution and have the issue investigated.
A replacement aircraft was flown in to take the passengers onto Heathrow. The flight was also carrying company engineers who were flown in to investigate the problem. The flight landed without issue at 1.21pm.
The flight crew did not declare an emergency and confirmed to controllers that they would not require emergency services to be standing by for they as they expected to make a ‘normal landing.’
A British Airways spokesperson confirmed: “The aircraft diverted to Shannon as a precaution after a minor technical issue. We have sent a replacement aircraft to fly our customers back to Heathrow as soon as possible.
“We have apologised to our customers for the delay to their journey. The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority.”
The incident jet was expected to remain grounded at Shannon until the issue could be resolved.
