A transatlantic flight that was forced to divert to an airport in Canada and was then expected to divert to Shannon later landed at Dublin Airport.
British Airways flight BA-2262 had departed Kingston on the Caribbean island of Jamaica on Saturday evening destined for Gatwick Airport in England.
The Boeing 777-200 jet was just over four hours into its when the flight first diverted to St Johns in Canada. The flight was about 550kms southeast of Newfoundland when the crew advised air traffic controllers of their request to divert.
The flight crew requested permission to descend and dump aviation fuel before landing in St John’s. The crew jettisoned six tonnes of fuel over the ocean off Newfoundland before continuing for a safe landing. It’s understood the flight diverted with an ill passenger.
After about two and a half hours on the ground in St John’s the flight departed again but was scheduled to stop at Shannon Airport. It’s understood the flight would not have reached Gatwick without the crew exceeding their allowed flying hours so the decision was made to make at stop at Shannon.
It was later decided that the flight would continue onto Dublin where it landed shortly before 1.00pm. The flight resumed its journey to Gatwick about three hours later. It’s understood that a replacement crew was flown in to complete the flight.
