Nine hour New Delhi-London flight takes 21 hours

Passengers suffered through a series of unscheduled stops.

Travel Insurance News - 10/02/2011

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Passengers on a British Airways flight from New Delhi in India to the British capital suffered a series of unscheduled stops that ended up more than doubling the time it should have taken to complete the flight. The flight was scheduled to last nine hours but ended up needing 21 hours to get to Heathrow.

A medical emergency on flight BA 142 forced the first diversion, to the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan. The plane then had to make another unscheduled stop in Turkey.

The plane reportedly departed New Delhi’s Indira Ghandi International Airport on Tuesday at 3.30am. The flight should have arrived at London’s Heathrow airport at 7am local time.

Sources say flight BA 142 made its first unscheduled stop at Azerbaijan’s Baku airport at 6.40am local time as a result of a medical emergency onboard. The problem escalated when local authorities refused to let the plane leave without a female passenger who was sick. The pilot refused to leave Baku with the unwell woman aboard.

Having sat on the tarmac in Azerbaijan’s capital city for more than six hours, the flight departed Baku at 12.56pm. The problems did not end there, however. The flight was again diverted, this time for Istanbul, so a fresh crew could take over.

The flight was supposed to leave Turkey by 4.30pm local time but ended up departing Istanbul at 5.49pm. When the plane touched down in London, passengers had endured a marathon 21-hour trip.

A spokesperson for British Airways said the airline was ‘extremely sorry’ for its customers inconvenience. However, the airline stressed that customer safety was always the carrier’s top priority and it hoped passengers would appreciate this.

<< Belgian students taken off Ryanair flight from Spain | Travel News | Government and BAA ‘colluded’ over drop-off charge >>