Cathay Pacific A350 Hong Kong-London Declares Emergency

In the last few moments, a Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 from Hong Kong has declared an emergency whilst on descent into London Heathrow.

B-LXP is the Airbus A350-1000 operating this flight.

Updates: Cathay Pacific A350 Hong Kong-London Declares Emergency…

This is a developing story. Updates below.

UPDATE #1 @ 1629 UK time – Cathay Pacific flight CX257 from Hong Kong is now on final to London Gatwick, it’s diversion field, with Heathrow being a no-go at this time.

UPDATE #2 @ 1634 UK time – TOUCHDOWN! CX257 has appeared to have landed safely into Gatwick following it’s emergency call following a series of holds and a failed landing attempt.

UPDATE #3 @ 1635 UK time – With the go-around and multiple holds around the Heathrow area, it is likely that this was a fuel emergency that prompted the diversion to Gatwick.

UPDATE #4 @ 1635 UK time – B-LXP, the Airbus A350-1000 operating this flight for Cathay Pacific is a 1.4 year old airframe which was delivered to the carrier back in September 2022, as per data from Planespotters.net.

Of the -1000 variant, the Hong Kong-based carrier has 18 of them in the fleet, of which all are in active service and host an average fleet age of 4.2 years.

UPDATE #5 @ 1637 UK time – Understood that CX257 was met by emergency crews at London Gatwick on it’s arrival.

UPDATE #6 @ 1642 UK time – @FlightEmergency confirming that the emergency was due to low fuel following missed approaches at Heathrow.

Click the banner to subscribe to our weekly Emergencies and Incidents newsletter.