American Airlines Boeing 777 to Charlotte U-Turns to London

In the last 30 minutes or so, an American Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Charlotte has u-turned over the Atlantic Ocean and has returned to London Heathrow.

Incident: American Airlines Boeing 777 to Charlotte U-Turns to London…

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American Airlines flight AA731 is a routine scheduled flight between London Heathrow and Charlotte, with the affected rotation being operated by N786AN.

As per data from Planespotters.net, N786AN is a 23.8 year old Boeing 777-200ER that was first delivered to the carrier back in April 2000.

Of the 777-200ER variant, the U.S carrier has 47 of them in the fleet, of which 42 are in active service and five are currently parked, offering an average fleet age of 23.2 years.

American Airlines flight AA731 departed London Heathrow at 1439 local time this afternoon and proceeded in a westerly direction to Charlotte.

Upon passing Ireland and entering the Atlantic Ocean, the crew onboard opted to turn the aircraft around and return back to Heathrow.

AA731 entered a series of holds to burn fuel, with the crew onboard not broadcasting the 7700 squawk code at any point during this incident.

At this stage, it is unclear what the reason for this u-turn back to London Heathrow was for, as well as when the aircraft will continue on back to Charlotte.

Updates…

Therefore, this remains a developing story. As soon as we have the reason for this incident, we will update the article accordingly.

UPDATE #1 @ 1757 UK time – American Airlines flight AA731 for Charlotte continues to hold to the south-west of London Heathrow.

UPDATE #3 @ 1805 UK time – @airlivenet reporting that AA731 currently has a technical issue, hence the return back to Heathrow.

UPDATE #4 @ 1822 UK time – AA731 continues to hold as fuel burn continues due to this technical issue onboard the aircraft.

UPDATE #5 @ 1840 UK time – @FlightEmergency specifies the technical issue in question: One of the navigation systems are not working properly.

UPDATE #6 @ 1904 UK time – After quite some time in the hold, American Airlines flight AA731 is now continuing it’s descent and approach back into London Heathrow.

UPDATE #7 @ 1911 UK time – AA731 is on the downwind leg into Heathrow after four and a half hours in the air.

UPDATE #8 @ 1917 UK time – AA731 is now on finals for Heathrow on the 27s.

UPDATE #9 @ 1923 UK time – TOUCHDOWN! American Airlines flight AA731, originally bound for Charlotte, has safely touched down into London Heathrow following it’s technical issues over the Atlantic a few hours ago.

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