A TUI flight that left London Gatwick (LGW) at 11:13 on Wednesday morning has returned to the airport, seemingly with technical issues.
Flight number BY84, en route to Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ), was seen on radar sites to be holding over Burgess Hill in the UK before returning to the airport, where several fire engines greeted it. As of publication, neither the airport nor the carrier has commented publically on this issue.
Departures were impacted, with no aircraft departing between 12:54 and 13:12, causing later flights to be delayed as a knock-on effect.
The flight has been rescheduled to depart London Gatwick (LGW) at 14:55 GMT on a new aircraft. However, the take-off has been pushed back a number of times.
While there are no official comments from passengers, others have indicated there were vibrations felt on board before the flight returned to the airport. No information appears to have been given to passengers or the media so far.
TUI Flight BY84
The international flight to the Dominican airport is scheduled to run daily from London using the carrier’s fleet of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.
TUI Airline flies over six and a half million customers abroad annually. With over 60 Boeing aircraft, the airline operates to 85 destinations in 35 countries.
The airline reported just six incidents last year involving technical issues or bird strikes. With no serious incidents, it’s likely that a technical error was identified on take-off, and pilots decided to land and change aircraft to ensure no major incidents occurred.
Travel Radar has reached out to London Gatwick and TUI for comment. This story will be updated when we have more information.
Were you on flight BY84 this morning? Have these events impacted your travel plans? Please let us know in the comments!
