British Airways flight to US diverted after technical issue

A BRITISH Airways flight to the US was diverted for an emergency landing after a technical issue.

The flight was bound for Philadelphia but had to make a U-turn and landed back at London Heathrow at around 2.45pm.

Airport Webcams tweeted that the flight "stopped the climb at 12,000ft, declared Pan Pan, squawked 7700 General Emergency due to a pressurisation problem (via ATC) & has just returned to LHR."

Other reports online also suggested that the swift landing may have been made due to a "pressurisation problem" but this has not been confirmed.

The flight, number BA67, was scheduled to take off from Heathrow at 12.40pm UTC, and land in Philadelphia at 8.35pm UTC.

A BA spokeswoman said: "To clarify, this was not an emergency and the aircraft landed safely.

"The pilots requested a priority landing as a precaution due to a technical issue and the aircraft landed safely."