British Airways Chicago Flight Returns to Heathrow After Rapid Descent
publishers 44articles 54first reported 5 Oct, 13:53 UTCdeveloping since 5 Oct · 9 editions
A British Airways flight from London to Chicago returned safely to Heathrow Airport on Monday after a technical issue prompted a rapid, apparently controlled descent.
FlightAware tracking data cited by CBS News showed the aircraft descending about 27,000 feet in 10 minutes, from 36,000 feet to 9,000 feet, roughly 30 minutes after departure. The plane turned around over Ireland and circled for several hours before landing at Heathrow on Monday evening local time. CBS reported that the circling appeared intended to burn fuel.
British Airways said the flight experienced a technical issue. “Customers disembarked the aircraft normally and our teams are working to get their travel plans back on track as quickly as possible,” an airline spokesperson told CBS News.
Several outlets reported that the flight declared an emergency during the incident. Reports differed slightly on the size of the descent, with some describing a drop of about 28,000 feet. Video of the aircraft’s return was captured by an automated tracking camera livestreamed on Flightradar24’s YouTube channel.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 7 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 24 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 44
- Source articles
- 54
- Given to the writer
- 7, 2 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 24 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →