A British Airways Airbus A380, bound for London Heathrow, returned to its origin point of Johannesburg due to an issue with its landing gear.
British Airways A380 Returns to Johannesburg…
BA56 departed Johannesburg at 1946 local time earlier today, and then under 20 minutes after its departure, it decided to turn back to the South African airport.
The flight was operated by G-XLEH, an Airbus A380-841 that is nine years old at the time of writing, as per data from Planespotters.net.
@aviosAdventurer on Twitter reported that his father was onboard the flight, with a picture featured of the in-flight map showing the turn back to the airport.
The aircraft, originally bound for its return to London Heathrow, landed back in Johannesburg less than an hour after departure.
At this stage, it is unclear when the aircraft will be deemed airworthy to head back to London Heathrow, with no departure slot initiated as of yet.
@aviosAdventurer sent us a series of texts from his father regarding the experience of the landing onboard:
“Some hard braking to get us to stop. Captain said we had to wait for the external examination of the plane to be completed. Fire trucks are keeping their distance”.
He also noted that the tires were flat spotted as well, hinting at a very hard landing.
It has also been reported that the aircraft is still stuck on the runway at Johannesburg, similar to what happened to the Emirates Airbus A380 yesterday at London Gatwick.
This does seem to be shaping up to be a similar issue to the incident yesterday.
AviationSource will approach British Airways for a comment on the return back to the airport. As soon as we have a statement from the carrier, we will update this piece when it comes through.
This is a developing story. More to follow in due course.
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