Flight BA31 was 35,000ft over Turkmenistan when the Boeing 777-200 aircraft was turned back to London on Sunday, according to data from tracking site FlightRadar24.

The flight reportedly landed at Heathrow just before 8am local time, more than 11 hours after its departure.

In a statement, the airline: “The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue.

“It landed safely and customers disembarked as normal. We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their journey.”

Unfortunately Flight BA32 was beset by more problems later on Sunday – as it was diverted to Budapest three hours into its journey due to an onboard medical emergency.

It is not the first time a British Airways plane has taken a “flight to nowhere” in recent weeks.

Earlier this month a flight from Heathrow to Texas had to turn back just as it reached North America, landing back in London more than nine hours after taking off.

Read the full story originally published at – standard.co.uk

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Samantha Fox has been charged with a public order offence and being drunk on a plane.

The 57-year-old star – who enjoyed chart success in the 1980s with songs including Touch Me (I Want Your Body) and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now – was on a flight to Germany in January when the incident took place. Earlier reports revealed that the star was arrested at Heathrow Airport after she had used threatening, abusive or insulting words to cause harassment, alarm or distress on board a British Airways flight.

All passengers were forced to abandon the flight at the time as take-off was delayed meaning the flight wouldn’t be able to land in time for strict air travel laws in Germany. All the other passengers were put up in a hotel and moved to flights the following day – while Sam reportedly spent the night in a cell instead.

Now the Metropolitan Police have confirmed she has been charged with a public order offence following her arrest two months ago. The singer is now scheduled to appear at Uxbridge magistrates’ court, West London, later this month.

When asked for details over the charge, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed to The Mirror: “A woman has been charged in relation to an incident on a plane on Sunday, 3 December 2023. Samantha Fox (15.04.66) of Waltham Forest, was charged via postal requisition with a public order offence (S4a) and being drunk on an aircraft. She will appear at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 22 March.”

When news reports emerged of Sam’s arrest on 21 January, the star issued a grovelling apology. She said at the time, via The Sun, that she was: “deeply sorry for any disruption caused”. Reports said she was helping the police with their investigation.

Sam, who rose to fame as a glamour model in the 1980s before becoming a pop star, married her partner of six years Linda Oslen in 2022, with a lavish ceremony in Essex. The former Celebrity Big Brother star and Linda announced their engagement in March 2020, four years after they first struck up a romance in 2016.

During an appearance on Loose Women, Sam revealed that it was Linda who proposed, after panellist Frankie Bridge asked Sam if she was surprised when it happened. “Kind of, I did hint!” Sam admitted, before adding: “I mean I’m getting on a bit now. When I met her, I knew I was completely in love with her and wanted to be with her forever.” Recalling the moment she first dropped some wedding hints to her now-wife, Sam added: “I was doing a concert in Slovakia and we stayed in a 16th century castle and I said, ‘wouldn’t it be lovely to get married here?’ She waited until Valentine’s Day 2020 to ask me to be her wife. She got down on one knee and it was all very traditional, I cried, she cried.”

Read the full story originally published at mirror.co.uk

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Robert Brown bludgeoned 46-year-old Joanna Simpson with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.

The killing was the subject of a recent two-part ITV documentary The British Airways Killer.

Brown’s High Court challenge against a Government move to block his automatic release from prison was dismissed by Mr Justice Ritchie on Wednesday.

Brown, who was jailed for 26 years in 2011, claimed that “political motivation” amid a media campaign against his release improperly contributed to a decision to refer his case to the Parole Board.

His lawyers argued at a hearing in London earlier this month that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk’s referral was unlawful.

Brown was cleared of murder after a trial, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, with a psychiatric report saying he suffered from an “adjustment disorder”.

Aged 47 at sentencing, Brown believed he was “stitched up” by a prenuptial agreement and was affected by stress linked to his divorce, a judge was told.

He was due to be automatically freed on licence halfway through his sentence in November last year, but Ms Simpson’s friends and family urged Mr Chalk to intervene.

In October 2023, the minister used new powers to have Brown’s case reviewed by the Parole Board, an independent body that carries out risk assessments on prisoners to determine whether they can be safely released.

Brown’s lawyers argued the referral was “an obvious attempt to seek to reverse engineer justification for a decision that was in reality prompted and obtained through conscious or unconscious political bias”.

His legal team said the risk posed by Brown had not increased and that he had been “subjected to a high-profile campaign through the media and with politicians that has sought to block his release”.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) rejected his allegations, arguing that Mr Chalk “in no way seeks to ‘go behind’ or ‘disapply’ or ‘fail to respect’ the sentencing court’s decision”.

Lawyers for the department said Mr Chalk believed Brown “would pose a significant risk of serious harm to the public if released on licence”, adding that the offender had “persistently refused to engage in the rehabilitative elements of his sentence”.

Mr Chalk’s referral, enabled through a “power to detain” provision introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, overrode Brown’s automatic release.

Ms Simpson’s mother, Diana Parkes, has previously urged the Parole Board to “keep him in jail” and was made a CBE in December for services to vulnerable children suffering from domestic abuse and domestic homicide.

Read the full story originally published at standard.co.uk

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The suspect, 24, who worked at Terminal 5, is said to have charged customers £25,000 a time to abuse a loophole in order to fly them across the BA network without crucial visa documents.

Police are working with counterparts in India to try to trace the man, who vanished with his BA ground services partner after being arrested and bailed.

As part of his fiddle, he got clients, most from India, to fly to the UK on a temporary visitor visa where he arranged for them to jet elsewhere.

Other clients were UK-based asylum claimants who feared being returned to their country of origin.

Canadian authorities raised the alarm after years of BA flights to Toronto or Vancouver on which arrivals would immediately declare asylum.

A probe found all were checked in by the same man who falsely verified the travellers had an eTA — electronic travel authorisation — to enter a chosen country.

An eTA can be applied for by a passenger only in their country of origin, and would have been rejected without the BA official’s help.

He was nicked on January 6 but bailed after which he flew to India, from Heathrow, where he has bought several homes, it is said.

A source told The Sun last night: “He exploited a loophole knowing that immigration checks are no longer carried out by officials but are left to airline staff.

“By inputting wrong data, and claiming eTA documents had been secured, he got people to countries they had no permission to enter in the first place.

“On arrival, the bogus passengers would shred their documents and claim asylum.

“Many jetted to Britain to pay him to get them to Canada.

“Others had been stuck in the UK immigration system for up to 10 years, and feared being sent back to their country of origin.

Read the full story originally published at thesun.co.uk

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Holidaymakers had been returning to London from Gran Canaria tonight when the pilots were forced to make the emergency landing.

The plane was over northern France when the plane declared a 7700 general emergency.

The BA2707 flight took off from Gran Canaria Airport at 6.30pm today.

It was set to land at London Gatwick Airport – but instead landed at Brest, France, at 10.53pm.

The squawk code was issued at around 10pm.

A BA spokesperson said: “The flight diverted due to a customer requiring medical attention where it landed normally.

“Our teams are working to ensure customers are able to continue their journey as soon as possible.”

Read the originally published story at The Sun

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Chris Bowers booked a $1,400 flight for his nephew, Frazer Linscott, last November from Sapporo, Japan to Brisbane so he could accompany his daughter Sasha.

However, when Mr Bowers made the booking, he incorrectly spelt Frazer with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’, mistakenly spelling his nephew’s name as ‘Fraser’.

Mr Bowers told the Sydney Morning Herald once the small error was noticed, he quickly called the airline.

The customer was informed the only way it could be fixed was to cancel the flight and rebook.

In the time Mr Bowers had booked and needed to cancel and repurchase, the $1,400 fare had hiked up to a whopping $3,000.

‘The injustice was compounded when I discovered that the cancelled flight had also attracted a $300 cancellation charge bringing the total cost of a single letter spelling mistake to $1900,’ he said.

Mr Bowers made a complaint to Qantas before contacting the Airline Customer Advocate.

However, the advocacy lacks any powers for resolution.

A Qantas customer care person informed Mr Bowers that spelling could only be fixed if the booking was completely operated by the airline.

Mr Bower’s booking for his nephew included flights that were operated by Jetstar Japan, which Qantas is only a minority shareholder in.

They advised Mr Bowers the only way to fix such an issue was to cancel and rebook and warned the fare price could not be guaranteed.

Qantas also advised they would not refund the difference in fares but would instead provide a letter for his insurance company with details of the incident.

Mr Bowers said the airline had shown ‘zero empathy’ who had ‘refused to engage’ when the customer asked Qantas if they ‘thought this was the right thing to do’.

A Qantas spokesman told Daily Mail Australia said they do offer free name corrections, but they have to be made on the day of booking.

The airline also said name changes can be made to bookings with other airlines on the day of purchase without a fee if they were bought through qantas.com

‘Whilst the customer was given the correct information from our customer care team regarding changes for a Jetstar Japan booking, we have offered the customer a refund for the cancellation fee as a gesture of goodwill,’ they said.

However, Qantas ended up offering Mr Bowers a $1,600 travel voucher a day after they were contacted by media.

Consumer’s Federation of Australia chairman Gerard Brody told The Sydney Morning Herald there is a gap in the law surrounding unfair trade practices by airlines.

‘Refusing to allow a simple name change and imposing additional costs by forcing the customer to cancel a ticket and make a new booking at significant expense doesn’t sound fair,’ he said.

Read the full story originally published at dailymail.co.uk

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All three planes include Etihad’s new cabin interior, set in a two-class configuration of 32 business suites and 271 economy seats. The planes are set to enter service later this month.

“We are thrilled to welcome these brand-new, state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliners to Abu Dhabi. Their arrival is key to our network expansion strategy and comes at the perfect time as we continue to add multiple new destinations and expand frequencies into key markets,” Antonoaldo Neves, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways, said.

He added: “These new aircraft support our commitment to Abu Dhabi, allowing us to bring more guests to experience the incredible capital of the UAE, either as their end destination or on a stopover when connecting across our expanding network.”

The 787-9s will further bolster Etihad’s fleet as it launches additional destinations over the coming months.

Excitement takes flight as our three new 787-9 Dreamliners touch down, welcoming in the next generation experience of premier flying with our stylish new cabin interior! ✈️✨ Where can we fly you next? pic.twitter.com/IMUGvNjNl4

— Etihad Airways (@etihad) February 23, 2024

On March 31, 2024, Etihad will begin flying to Boston, its fourth US gateway, and will soon add Nairobi and Bali to its network.

It will also operate summer routes to Nice, Malaga, Mykonos and Santorini.

The arrival of the three new Dreamliners follows the delivery of a Boeing 787-10 in October 2023.

Read the full story originally published at aerotime.aero

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The aircraft was travelling from Aberdeen to London Heathrow this morning when the alarm was raised.

Flight BA1307 departed shortly before 11am and was due to land in the capital at 12:25pm.

But it was forced to divert to Edinburgh Airport after broadcasting an emergency squawk signal.

Footage from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft circling several times above West Lothian before continuing to Edinburgh.

A BA spokesperson said: “Our aircraft diverted to Edinburgh due to a minor technical issue where it landed normally.

“Our teams are working to ensure customers reach their destination as soon as possible.”

We recently told how an EasyJet flight from Scotland was seconds away from crashing in the Alps in a terrifying close call.

The Airbus A320 Neo left Edinburgh Airport with 157 passengers and was due to land at Geneva’s Cointrin Airport.

Read more at thescottishsun.co.uk

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Especially when British Airways launches new deals on all short holidays in the USA, with hundreds costing from £582pp.

The British holiday company has flights to more than 15 US locations, most of which can be visited over three nights.

• Check out the best deals on the British Airways USA sale here

If you are not set on a particular destination and want to spend more time exploring and travelling less, Boston usually has the shortest flight times from the UK.

The Massachusetts capital city is followed by New York, Chicago, Miami and New Orleans, averaging 7 to 11 hours.

All the locations offer their unique charm, with anything from the busy streets of New York to the world-renowned nightlife of Miami or the rich cultural legacy of New Orleans.

The flag carrier flies from more than ten airports across the nation, so there should be deals to suit everyone.

Here are some of the best US city breaks we’ve spotted for this year:

• 3 nights at Park Central Hotel New York in New York, USA – from £582pp
• 3 nights at Clinton South Beach in Miami, USA – from £629pp
• 3 nights at Selina Catahoula in New Orleans, USA – from £663pp
• 3 nights at Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Downton South Loop in Chicago, USA – from £669pp
• 3 nights at Four Points by Sheraton Wakefield Boston Hotel in Boston, USA – from £675pp

We understand that three days might seem like a short time to visit anywhere in the USA, but you’ll still have plenty of time to explore.

A top tip is to prepare a detailed itinerary before you leave to ensure you hit all the most popular spots in an order that makes sense without travelling back and forth in your chosen city.

On top of that, a sleep expert revealed a ‘foolproof way to avoid jet lag‘, that even astronauts swear by.

If you still think you’d need more time to enjoy your holiday, we’ve also found some pretty good deals on seven-night stays in Florida.

Here are some of the best ones we’ve found with BA, under £1,000pp:

• 7 nights at Ramada Plaza Resort & Suites International Drive in Orlando, Florida – from £640pp
• 7 nights at Coco Key Hotel and Water Park Resort in Orlando, Florida – from £699pp
• 7 nights at Universal’s Surfside Inn and Suites in Orlando, Florida – from £863pp

All British Airways package holidays include return flights, accommodation and baggage allowance.

When flying long-haul, passengers can bring up to two bags into the cabin – as long as they don’t weigh more than 23kg each.

When it comes to checked luggage, passengers can check in up to ten bags weighing no more than 23kg for economy and premium economy and 32kg for business and first class.

Read the full story originally published on thesun.co.uk

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According to a statement issued by the Chiang Mai International Airport, the incident took place on the night of February 7.

The air traffic control tower was reportedly notified at 10:05 p.m. that Thai Airways flight TG121, due to depart for Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, was waiting in line on the runway to take off when a passenger opened one of the plane’s doors, causing an evacuation slide to deploy.

The Airbus A320 was unable to be immediately moved, temporarily preventing other flights from taking off and landing, said the statement.

“After receiving the alert, we reached out to Thai Airways mechanics to get into the site to cut the evacuation slide off, then we towed the aircraft back to landing pit number 15,” said Wing Commander Ronnakorn Chalermsanyakorn, director of Chiang Mai International Airport, in the statement.

The director added that 13 flights in total were affected by the incident, including eight that were forced to circle in the air before being cleared to land. In total, 2,295 passengers were affected by the delays, said Ronnakorn.

Thai Airways issued a statement in response to the incident, noting that mechanics were able to repair and inspect the door in accordance with safety regulations, with the delayed flight eventually taking off for Bangkok after midnight.

“The flight continued its journey at 12:34 a.m. on the 8th of January,” said the statement. “All passengers, pilots and cabin crew were safe.”

Chiang Mai Police Colonel Manuschai In-thuean, the officer in charge of the case, told CNN they arrested Wong Sai Heung, a 40-year-old Canadian national, at the scene.

If found guilty he could face the death penalty, imprisonment of up to 20 years and/or a 600,000-800,000 baht ($16,700-$22,300) fine, though it should be noted Thailand has not carried out a prisoner execution since 2018.

Police said they were unaware of the suspect’s motive for opening the door, but noted he appeared stressed and was difficult to communicate with.

“We sent him to the Suan Prung Psychiatric Hospital for an evaluation,” said Manuchai.

Read the full story originally published at –cnn.com

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