British Airways declares emergency as plane circles large part of England

A British Airways aircraft did loops in the sky over the south-east of England after making an emergency alert this morning.

The flight BAW866H left from London Heathrow and was due to arrive in Budapest, Hungary, at around 11.20am today (September 18).

However instead the flight landed back at Heathrow after initially setting off at 7.44am and the returning to where it started one hour and seven minutes later at 9.21am.

The flight path of the aircraft shows it setting off from Heathrow before making a double loop over the Canterbury area, not far from the south coast over Kent, before heading back to Berkshire.

Typically a plane loops over a certain area if it needs to land earlier than expected to "dump fuel" to allow it to touchdown safely. The fuel usually evaporates at higher altitude, deeming it a safe procedure to do if and when needed.

A spokesperson for BA said: "Our aircraft returned to London Heathrow as a precaution because of a suspected minor technical issue.

"We're sorry to our customers for the disruption to their journeys and our teams are working to get them on their way again as quickly as possible."

A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport told Express.co.uk that the airport "continues to operate as normal."