PILOT INCAPACITATION - British Airways BA-2272 (JFK-LGW) New York to London-Gatwick one of the pilots became incapacitated, plane forced to divert to Canada (March 14, 2024)

British Airways Flight From New York To London Diverts To Canada After Pilot Becomes ‘Incapacitated’

March 24, 2024

A British Airways Boeing 777-200ER flying from New York-JFK to London-Gatwick (LGW) was forced to divert to St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada after one of the pilots became incapacitated. 

According to Aerotime Hub, the flight, with flight number BA 2272, departed New York-JFK at 21:54 on March 14, 2024, for the seven-hour and 50-minute flight back to London, where it was due to land at 08:05 the following morning.  

However, after around three hours of flying eastbound and with the aircraft cruising at 40,000ft and 440 nautical miles northeast of St. John’s, the crew declared an emergency, reporting that one of the flight crew was unable to continue in their duties. 

Upon further discussion between the crew and air traffic controllers based in Canada, the flight subsequently left its designated oceanic airway and turned back towards St John’s.  

The aircraft eventually landed on runway 29 at St. John’s International Airport (YYT) at around 02:00 on the morning of March 15, 2024 – around 80 minutes after the emergency was declared.  

“At 04:42 UTC, a flight crew member contacted Gander Air Control Center to declare a medical emergency for a flight crew member who was unable to continue with flight duties,” said a Canadian Transportation Safety Board statement. 

“A clearance was requested to divert to St. John’s International Airport in Newfoundland. Gander issued the clearance and the aircraft landed safely at St. John’s at 05:59 UTC with paramedics standing by.” 

The aircraft involved, one of the carrier’s 43-strong fleet of Boeing 777-200ERs registered G-VIIP remained on the ground in St. John’s for about 36 hours before continuing to Gatwick on March 16, 2024, taking four hours and 18 minutes to return to its base airport. 

The aircraft has since completed rotations from Gatwick to Tampa (TPA), Bridgetown (BGI), and Orlando (MCO). 

The passengers who were onboard the diverted flight were rescued by another of the airline’s Boeing 777s (G-YMMJ) that happened to be on the ground in New York at the time of the diversion. 

This aircraft routed directly from New York-JFK to St. John’s as BA9156 before continuing the transatlantic leg of the journey, eventually landing at London-Heathrow (LHR) with the affected passengers at 20:57 on March 15, 2024. 

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2nd “Medical Emergency” of a British Airways flight crew in past month

Feb.13, 2024 - "Medical situation" forced Canada-bound flight to return to the UK

Kimia Afshar Mehrabi

Feb 16 2024, 12:07 pm

An alarming “medical situation” that recently unfolded on a Toronto-bound flight forced an aircraft back to its original departure point less than three hours after it first took off.

The routine seven-hour trip, operating as British Airways flight BAW93, departed from Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, February 13 at 12:25 pm.

According to AirLive.net, pilots contacted air traffic control roughly one hour into the flight before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reported a “medical situation” that had unfolded onboard the aircraft.

One of the flight’s crew members reportedly required medical attention, leading the captain to cut the journey short and return back to Heathrow Airport. The plane landed in London approximately two hours and 49 minutes after departure at 3:04 pm local time, with the crew member requiring medical assistance upon landing.

At the time of publication, it’s not clear what the crew member’s role was on the aircraft, or what the medical situation was.

The same aircraft departed to Toronto four hours later, and landed at Pearson Airport just before 10 pm local time.

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Pilot Incapacitations inflight in 2024 (3 so far):