In the early hours of this morning local time, a British Airways Airbus A380 bound for London u-turned and held over Singapore for hours following a technical issue.
Information has come to light following this incident.
Below is what we know so far on this.
British Airways BA12 – Singapore to London…
British Airways flight BA12 is a routine scheduled flight between Singapore and London Heathrow.
The aircraft involved in this incident is G-XLED.
As per data from Planespotters.net, G-XLED is a 10.7 year old Airbus A380 that was delivered to the airline in January 2014.
Of the A380 variant, British Airways has 12 in the fleet.
Furthermore, of that 12, all but one are in active service, hosting an average fleet age of 10.0 years.
BA12 departed Singapore at 0310 local time this morning and initially climbed out towards London Heathrow.
Upon reaching Malacca City, the aircraft made a u-turn back to the airport.
From there, the aircraft entered a series of holds to the east of Changi Airport to burn fuel.
Furthermore, this is so then the aircraft can acquire a suitable landing weight to operate the arrival safely.
After around five hours in the air, British Airways flight BA12 bound for London landed safely back into Singapore Changi Airport.
As per AirLive, it is understood the cause was a technical issue onboard the aircraft.
It is key to note that a general emergency squawk code was not broadcast, hinting the issue was under control from the get-go.
Still Grounded Currently…
Data from RadarBox shows that the British Airways A380 bound for London is still grounded in Singapore.
It is unclear when the aircraft will be fixed and back in commercial service.
This depends on the severity of the technical issue at hand.
All eyes will be on how long it takes the aircraft to be fixed, so then G-XLED can return back into commercial service.
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