Delta Airlines was forced to operate a five-hour “flight to nowhere” after a Scotland-bound plane encountered problems over Canada.
Flight DL208 from New York to Edinburgh was two hours into the almost seven-hour scheduled flight on Monday (25 November) when it made a U-turn back to JFK Airport.
The aircraft encountered a “potential engine issue” that prompted the turnaround to New York.
Data from tracking site FlightRadar24 shows the Boeing 767-300 rerouting over Newfoundland before crossing over the Atlantic Ocean.
The Delta flight with 212 passengers and 11 crew members onboard took off at 10pm and had been due to land in the Scottish capital at 9.45am local time.
A passenger on the “actual nightmare” flight shared to X/Twitter: “Apparently there was an error with one of the systems or whatever so we couldn’t cross the ocean.”
They added that passengers were rebooked onto the 10am JFK to Edinburgh flight so restarted their journey home “12 hours later than expected”.
A spokesman for Delta Airlines told Edinburgh Live: “Delta apologizes to our customers for the delay in their travels and we appreciate their patience. Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people.”
They added: “Flight crew followed established procedures to return to New York-JFK after observing a potential engine issue prior to Atlantic crossing.”
A “flight to nowhere” refers to any flight that ends up landing back at its departure airport without stopping off elsewhere.
In October, Air France passengers were trapped on an eight-hour round trip to nowhere after Iran’s overnight attack on Israel sparked flight diversion chaos.
But as missiles were fired from Iran over Iraq towards Israel, the airspace of both countries was closed.
Air France flight AF218 from Paris to Mumbai had departed four hours late from Charles de Gaulle Airport. By the time it reached Iraq, the nation’s airspace was suddenly closed. The plane turned around and, battling headwinds, finally arrived back at Paris CDG exactly 12 hours after the original departure time.
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