It has emerged that last week, a British Airways flight between New York JFK and London Gatwick diverted to St. John’s due to a pilot being incapacitated.
This developed into a serious medical emergency that required such a diversion to the Canadian airport.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
BA2272 – New York-London…
British Airways flight BA2272 is a routine scheduled flight between New York JFK and London Gatwick.
The aircraft involved in the medical emergency in St. John’s was operated by G-VIIP.
As per data from Planespotters.net, G-VIIP is a 25.2 year old Boeing 777-200.
It was delivered to British Airways in February 1999.
Furthermore, of the 777-200 variant, the UK carrier has 43 of them, of which 40 are in active service and three are parked.
Average fleet age for that variant with the airline is at 24.1 years.
British Airways flight BA2272 departed New York JFK at 2153 local time on March 15 and proceeded east to London.
Over the Atlantic crossing, the crew made a u-turn and proceeded to descend into St. John’s, Canada.
Following it’s descent, the aircraft landed safely into the Canadian airport not long afterwards.
Stuck in St. John’s Afterwards…
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood that the cause of this diversion was due to a pilot being incapacitated.
Furthermore, this resulted in the aircraft being stuck in St. John’s for 36 hours.
In a statement, the Canadian TSB said the following on the incident involving British Airways flight BA2272 between New York and London:
“At 04:42 UTC, a flight crew member contacted Gander ACC to declare a medical emergency for a flight crew member who was unable to continue with flight duties.”
“A clearance was requested to divert to St. John’s International Airport (CYYT), NL.”
“Gander ACC issued the clearance and the aircraft landed safely at CYYT at 05:59 UTC with paramedics standing by.”
Data from RadarBox shows that G-VIIP remained in St. John’s until March 16, when it positioned back to London Gatwick.
It is unclear at this stage whether the passengers from New York were on this flight or not.
However, the aircraft remained grounded until March 18, where it then operated services to Tampa.
No other information pertinent to the pilot involved has been released.
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