While they thought they had landed in London, the passengers of a United Airlines flight finally landed far from the planned destination, 700km away.
As if 7 hours of flight and 6000km spent at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters had not been enough. Passengers on a plane connecting Chicago to London had the bad surprise, this Wednesday, to travel much longer than expected on board the Boeing 767 that took them across the Atlantic. The road has been extended by nearly 700km from the planned destination. Leaving at 7:11 a.m. (Paris time), the plane headed as planned towards the English capital, following the usual flight plan.
The plane lands in Edinburgh instead of London
Approaching Heathrow airport where he was to land the aircraft, the pilot engaged in an unexpected maneuver since he performed, in the same sector, two loops in just over ten minutes. An operation generally performed to wait before landing. The plane then resumed the direction initially planned and approached the runway, descending to an altitude of 220m. But as he was about to hit the runway, the pilot overshot. Passengers thus spent an extra hour in flight.
If they intended to go near Buckingham Palace, the customers of United Airlines, the company which operated the flight, finally arrived at the foot of the Scott Monument… in Edinburgh. In London, storm Noa caused many disruptions, particularly at Heathrow airport where take-off and landing conditions were not optimal. Other flights have also been diverted.
Thus, flight UA938 resumed its route and flew an additional 700 km to reach the airport of the Scottish capital. The plane managed to land safely at 4 p.m., far from the planned destination. While a return journey to Heathrow was scheduled shortly after, the flight was canceled due to weather conditions, forcing passengers to spend the night well away from the Thames.