Exclusive:
Passenger Matthew Shanahan told of how the British Airways A380 took off from Singapore Airport, circled for several hours, and then returned to the same airport
British Airways passengers were flown round and round in circles so a plane could dump fuel before landing back where it started.
Matthew Shanahan was one of a plane load of passengers who spent nine hours on a ‘flight to nowhere’ that saw him end exactly where he started and a large jet dump a huge amount of polluting fuel into the atmosphere.
During the coronavirus pandemic a South Korean airline flew dozens of flights up and back to the same airport so bargain-hungry passengers could qualify for duty-free shopping, much to the horror of environmental campaigners. At a similar time 15,000 ‘ghost flights’ from the UK were taking off purely to keep their airport slots. The empty planes produced the same emissions as 1.4million cars.
Now a BA flight has gotten in on the act. From a hotel in Singapore earlier this week, Matthew told the Mirror: “Currently waiting in a hotel in Singapore after spending nine hours on a plane that took off and spent five hours dumping fuel and flying back to the airport this morning.”
As they circled, the pilot told the passengers that the plane was too heavy to land as it was, so fuel had to be burned off for several hours. The jet was an A380 with 600 passengers. A full A380 carrying 525 passengers between London and Los Angeles, a distance of 8,750km, will produce 3,445,312kg of CO2. That’s the same in terms of emissions as 525 family cars driving the same journey, according to Social Media Today.
The flight was forced to turn back after a small technical fault. A BA spokesperson said: “We are sorry for the delay to customers’ travel plans after the aircraft returned to Singapore Changi Airport as a precaution following a minor technical fault. Our teams are working hard to get our customers where they need to be.”
The airline said that safety was its top priority and that it would not operate a flight unless completely safe to do so.
Matthew has since made it home and has praised BA for how he was treated after the initial abandoned flight. He said: “To be fair they have done the best they can. The hotel was above standard and the food was very good.”
Heading off on holidays is usually amazing fun and a highlight of the year for many people. Not only can it provide a much needed chance to unwind and de-stress from the everyday routine, time away often makes it easier to reconnect with loved ones.
The bad news is that there are popular ways of travelling which can be damaging for the environment. For those in the UK who can afford to jet off on a break once or twice a year, often the single most polluting thing they’ll do is flying to a holiday destination. This is because commercial jets use a huge amount of fuel which releases emissions including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.
Check out more of Daily Mirror’s latest travel stories by signing up to our free weekly newsletter.
