Summary
- A British Airways Airbus A320-200 returned to London Heathrow due to a cabin pressurization issue during a routine passenger service.
- The pilots declared an emergency and swiftly descended to 10,000 ft after detecting the pressurization issue. The aircraft landed safely with no injuries reported.
- The aircraft involved in the incident is a 21-year-old A320-200 powered by two V2500 engines. This is not the first incident involving a British Airways A320-200 with a similar engine set.
A British Airways Airbus A320-200, registered G-EUUC, returned to London Heathrow after two hours of departure due to a cabin pressurization issue. The aircraft was en route to Faro when the pilots detected a technical issue onboard the plane. The pilots declared an emergency before turning around to London. The aircraft landed safely, and no injuries were reported.
British Airways Flight 508
On September 22, Flight BA508 was performing a routine passenger service between London Heathrow (LHR) and Faro (FAO) in Portugal. The flight, operating on an Airbus A320-200, departed an hour behind schedule at 17:07 local time for a two-hour and twenty-seven flight to FAO. According to the Aviation Herald,
“The aircraft that departed with a delay of about 1 hour was dispatched under minimum equipment list requirements with the left engine’s (V2527) bleed air system inoperative, then suffered the failure of the right hand bleed air system, too.”
The 21-year-old aircraft was delivered to British Airways in February 2002 and is powered by two V2500 engines manufactured by International Aero Engines (IAE).
Nearly 45 minutes after departure from Heathrow’s 09L runway, the aircraft reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 ft at a speed of 448 knots when the pilots detected a cabin pressurization issue.
The pilots declared an emergency before abruptly descending to 10,000 ft. According to data from FlightRadar24.com, the aircraft dropped 25,000 ft in a matter of minutes. A flight passenger on board reported that the seat belt sign came on abruptly as the crew announced an issue with the air conditioning system.
Following the loss of cabin pressure, the pilots began the sudden descent. The aircraft leveled off at 10,000 ft and continued in a holding pattern near Brest, France, for twenty minutes. The aircraft then continued northeast towards Heathrow at an approximate speed of 300 knots for an hour before landing on runway 09R at LHR.
The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in London Heathrow 36 hours following the emergency landing. It has been taken out of service until September 26, when it is scheduled to operate a flight BA304 between London and Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG).
The British Airways A320
British Airways has 67 A320-200s in its fleet and uses the aircraft to operate flights across Europe. The plane in question was delivered to British Airways in February 2002. Two IAE V2500 engines power the aircraft and feature a flexible 180-seat configuration.
Photo: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock
The V2500 engine has become one of the most successful aircraft engines in history, with 7,800 examples being produced. Over 3,500 aircraft remain in service powered by the V2500 today. A different British Airways A320-200 aircraft with a similar engine set suffered an engine failure in July 2022.
During a flight between London and Milas–Bodrum Airport (BJV) in southwestern Turkey, the aircraft suffered a left-hand engine failure, which required the turbofan to be shut down. It also promoted the crew to divert to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) just 35 minutes later. None of the passengers onboard were injured.
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Sources: The Aviation Herald; FlightRadar24.com