Travelers found themselves baffled on a ‘flight to nowhere’ when their plane traveled for four hours only to return to the airport it originally departed from.
Picture arriving at the airport, enduring the hectic security process, boarding the aircraft, and soaring through the air for four hours, only to disembark at the same location you started from. This was the reality for passengers departing Amsterdam last weekend.
The Aviation Herald reported that a KLM Boeing 777 was forced to make a U-turn over the Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport en route to Paramaribo, the capital city of Suriname.
According to Flightradar24, the flight left on Sunday (December 1) at its scheduled time.
Nevertheless, the aircraft made its return to Amsterdam two hours into the journey, eventually touching down at Schiphol Airport four hours post-departure.
The pilots informed air traffic control of a minor leak, necessitating the return to Amsterdam.
The Aviation Herald pointed out that the precise nature of the leak causing the KLM aircraft to turn back over the Atlantic Ocean was not disclosed by the pilots.
Travelers eventually headed to Suriname, where Dutch remains the official language due to its colonial past, approximately eight hours after the initial departure.
The journey typically lasts around nine hours, with passengers boarding a substitute aircraft to reach their destination.
The 777 Boeing aircraft that had to turn around resumed flights on December 2, according to Flightradar24.
A representative from KLM told Business Insider that a ‘technical malfunction’ necessitated the return to Amsterdam, noting: “As a precaution, the aircraft returned after two hours of flying.”
UNILAD has contacted KLM for additional remarks.
This isn’t the first instance of a flight landing back at its origin airport.
On September 7, passengers on an American Airlines flight from Texas to Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, spent nine hours in the air only to return to the departure airport.
An American Airlines representative 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.”