BA passengers endure two emergency landings in one day

Posted 22/06/2011

British Airways suffered two emergency landings in the same day, leading passengers to question the safety of its short-haul fleet.

A 1.35pm flight from London to Malaga was hit by mechanical problems just hours after a flight from Glasgow to London was forced to make an emergency landing.

Several passengers were on both flights, having transferred at Gatwick from the Glasgow service to the Malaga-bound aircraft. They are now demanding an apology from the airline.

BA's 10am flight from Glasgow to London, which was carrying 116 passengers, was met by fire engines at Gatwick airport after it suffered a loss of cabin pressure at 30,000 feet, triggering the release of passenger oxygen masks.

Hours later, flight BA2714 carrying 124 passengers to Malaga developed a landing gear fault 30 minutes after take-off, again causing oxygen masks to fall down and forcing the pilot to return to Gatwick where several passengers enduring their second emergency landing of the day.

Both aircraft were Boeing 737s and the incidents have led passengers to question whether there were safety issues with the aircraft. Speaking to the Daily Record, one passenger said: "To have two emergency landings in a row is pretty worrying. The fact BA did not even apologise to us seems incredible to me.

"It also made me think whether it draws into question the safety of the aircraft."

TravelMole has asked BA for a comment, which we look forward to adding to bringing to our readers when the airline responds.


By Linsey McNeill
 

Originally published 22 Jun 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/160ce69d/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C11481610Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm