Passengers on flight ‘to nowhere’ as plane flies for four hours but lands back at same airport it took off from
Topics: Travel, Netherlands
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/SOPA Images/Getty Images/DuKai photographer
Topics: Travel, Netherlands
Passengers were left perplexed on a flight 'to nowhere' as their plane flew for four hours before landing back at the same airport it took off from.
Imagine getting to the airport, going through the stressful security ordeal, boarding a flight and taking to the skies for four hours only to land at the airport you took off from. Well, that's exactly what happened to passengers hoping to leave Amsterdam last weekend.
The Aviation Herald first reported that a KLM Boeing 777 plane had to u-turn over the Atlantic Ocean after initially leaving Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport for Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname.
The flight, which departed on Sunday (December 1), left on time according to data from Flightradar24.
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However, the aircraft made a swift return to Amsterdam two hours into the flight - ultimately landing back at Schiphol Airport four hours after takeoff.
The pilots had told air traffic control the plane had suffered a small leak, hence the return to the Dutch capital.
The Aviation Herald notes the pilots did not specify what kind of leak lead to the KLM plane to turn around over the Atlantic Ocean.
Passengers flew to Suriname, which still uses Dutch as its official language after being a former colony, around eight hours after the initial departure time.
The flight takes around nine hours in total, with passengers flying on a replacement aircraft to get to their destination.
As for the 777 Boeing aircraft that had to make a return, that returned to the skies the following day on December 2, as per Flightradar24.
A KLM spokesperson told Business Insider a 'technical malfunction' caused the plane to return to Amsterdam, adding: "As a precaution, the aircraft returned after two hours of flying."
UNILAD has reached out to KLM for further comment.
It's not the first time a plane has landed at the same airport it took off from.
Passengers on the American Airlines flight from the Texas city to Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on September 7 were in the air for nine hours in total just to return to the airport the plane took off from.
An American Airlines spokesperson told UNILAD: "On September 7, American Airlines flight 281 with service from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Seoul (ICN) returned to DFW due to a maintenance issue.
"The flight landed safely and without incident at DFW, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team.
"We never want to disrupt our customers' travel plans, and we apologize for the inconvenience."