British Airways Flight BA295 makes emergency descent and returns to Heathrow

Flight details

BA295 departed London Heathrow Terminal 5 at 11:50 am bound for Chicago O’Hare, with a scheduled flight time of eight hours and 40 minutes.

The aircraft was a Boeing 777‑200ER registered G‑VIIA.

Emergency descent

The flight climbed to a cruising altitude of 37,000 ft before the emergency was declared.

It then descended rapidly to about 9,000 ft, a drop of 28,000 ft according to most reports.

During the descent the crew transmitted a squawk 7700 code and oxygen masks were deployed for passengers and crew.

Return and landing

After burning off fuel off the coast of Wales, the aircraft circled the UK for several hours before returning to Heathrow, landing at about 5 pm.