The A330-operated flight was heading for Lomé via Accra but ended up back where it started after just over an hour in the air.
A Belgian Airlines flight after spending an hour on-air returned to the capital, Brussels following a discovery that the captain fell ill on Monday, Simple Flying reports.
The A330-operated flight was heading for Lomé via Accra but ended up back where it started after just over an hour in the air.
The flight was terminated due to the captain suddenly falling ill during the climb, prompting the first officer to take control of the aircraft and stop its climb.
Tracking data from RadarBox.com revealed that the maximum altitude reached by plane, an 11-year-old Airbus A330-300 registered as OO-SFF, was 27,000 feet. It turned around just northeast of Paris, France.
The Brussels Airlines flight SN277 is a regularly scheduled flight that departs from the Belgian flag carrier’s hub in the Belgian capital.
According to data from RadarBox.com, it operates three times a week from Brussels Airport (BRU), on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Its first destination is Accra Kotoka Airport (ACC), the only international airport in Ghana.
The flight is timed to depart Brussels at 11:35, and arrive in Accra at 17:20 local time. This gave it a period of six hours and 45 minutes when accounting for the time difference. Following this, it had a second leg that took it onwards to Togo’s Lomé Gnassingbé Eyadéma International (LFW). This sector departs at 18:30, and arrives 55 minutes later at 19:25.
Brussels Airlines is the only carrier to serve the Brussels-Accra-Lomé route, although Qatar Airways does fly from the Belgian capital to Accra on a cargo basis. Unfortunately, Monday’s iteration of flight SN277 didn’t go to plan, with illness prompting a diversion.
According to the publication, there were 285 people onboard on Monday’s flight.
Flight SN277 departed Brussels yesterday with a slight delay at 11:51 local time. It began to climb on a southwesterly heading, but soon had to turn back. According to The Aviation Herald, the reason for this was a medical situation involving the flight’s captain.
This occurred when the captain suddenly became ill during the climb, prompting the first officer to take control of the aircraft and halt its ascent. Tracking data from RadarBox.com shows that the maximum altitude reached by the plane, an 11-year-old Airbus A330-300 registered as OO-SFF, was 27,000 feet. It turned around just northeast of Paris, France.
Under the control of the first officer, the aircraft returned to its point or original, Brussels Airport. It made a safe landing there at 13:12 local time, after just over an hour in the skies. Having taken off earlier from runway 25R, it touched down on runway 25L.
The aircraft had climbed to 27,000 feet before it had to turn back to Brussels.
The flight’s return to Brussels ended up delaying it by a few hours. However, a spokesperson for Brussels Airlines confirmed to Simple Flying that the captain “did not feel fit to complete the flight,” so the action taken was certainly the safest under the circumstances. The Aviation Herald noted that the captain’s condition was not related to coronavirus.
Once on the ground in Brussels, the carrier’s spokesperson explained to Simple Flying that “another captain took over and was able to operate the flight with the rest of the original crew.” The plane departed once again at 15:05 local time as flight SN2314, arriving in Accra at 20:13. It eventually reached Lomé at 21:41, with a total delay of two hours and 16 minutes.