British Airways flight BA295, operating from London to Chicago, declared an emergency after squawking 7700 and descending to an altitude of 9,000 feet while flying over Ireland, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. The aircraft has now been diverted back to London, the flight tracker showed.
Squawk 7700 is the internationally recognised transponder code used by aircraft to indicate a general emergency. The reason for the emergency has not been made public so far This comes days after the flydubai incident involving flight FZ1073, which was bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai and plunged 17,400 feet in just under two minutes. The Boeing 737-8 was carrying 174 passengers, including children.
It was later learnt that the incident was allegedly caused by the co-pilot attempting to crash the plane after attacking Captain Smit Machchhar. The aircraft was eventually diverted to Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
