British Airways Flight Circles Repeatedly Before Landing Due to Gear Issue

A British Airways aircraft encountered technical difficulties, necessitating it to circle repeatedly in the skies before safely landing back in Edinburgh.

On Monday, Flight 1443 departed from Edinburgh close to 11 a.m., destined for London. Instead of proceeding smoothly, it emitted a 7700 code—an urgent signal of a problem—just minutes after taking off, as reported by Flightradar24.

According to a representative for British Airways, the pilots detected an issue shortly after becoming airborne. Based on information from AirNav Radar's 'Flight Emergency' account, it seemed the landing gear failed to retract, remaining in the down position.

The Airbus A320 veered northward, entering a holding sequence near Stirling. It circled half a dozen times before heading back to Edinburgh, soaring over the Firth of Forth, and touching down at 12:16 p.m.—an hour post departure.

The runway situation forced Edinburgh Airport to halt operations until just before 2 p.m. Data from Flightradar24 shows that 15 flights destined for Edinburgh were rerouted, predominantly to Glasgow. Yet, a Qatar Airways flight made its landing at Manchester, located about 200 miles away, while a KLM flight was compelled to return to Amsterdam after rerouting near eastern England.

Upon landing, passengers were transported to the terminal and the plane was examined before being cleared from the runway. 'Safety is our top priority and we appreciate passengers' patience,' stated the airport's management.

'We sincerely apologize to our customers for the disruption caused to their travel plans and our teams are diligently working to resume schedules promptly,' a British Airways official commented.

This incident took place just days after Edinburgh Airport faced a separate operational suspension. The previous Friday, an IT glitch affected air traffic control, pausing all flight maneuvers, including a Delta Air Lines jet from New York which had to circle before heading to Dublin.