An American Airlines Boeing 777 operating a flight between London Heathrow and Charlotte declared an emergency with an issue onboard.
Information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
American Airlines Flight AA735: London to Charlotte…
American Airlines flight AA735, which declared the emergency, is a routine scheduled flight between London Heathrow and Charlotte.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was N734AR.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N734AR is a 10.7 year old Boeing 777-300ER that was delivered to the airline back in October 2015.
Of the 777-300ER variant, American Airlines has 20 of them in their fleet, of which 18 are in active service, and two are parked, offering an average fleet age of 12.4 years.
As well as the 777-300ER, the airline has the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
- 132 Airbus A319s.
- 48 Airbus A320s.
- 306 Airbus A321s.
- 406 Boeing 737s.
- 47 Boeing 777-200s.
- 70 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
In total, American Airlines has 1,029 aircraft, of which 998 are in active service, and 31 parked, with an overall average fleet age of 14.6 years.
American Airlines flight AA735, which declared the emergency, departed London Heathrow at 1529 local time on June 10 and initially climbed north for the long way around the Atlantic Ocean.
Near the Blackpool area, the aircraft all of a sudden performed a u-turn and declared an emergency via the 7700 squawk code.
From there, the descent back into Heathrow was agreed by the crew, and landed without further incident following the emergency call.
Below is video footage of the aircraft landing back into Heathrow:
What Was The Reason for the Emergency?
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood the reason for the emergency onboard American Airlines flight AA735 London-Charlotte was due to the Boeing 777-300ER experiencing a sustained number of lightning strikes over the Manchester area.
Following the emergency landing, the aircraft was grounded for nearly 24 hours, whilst the aircraft was checked for damage.
After the checks were complete, the aircraft was allowed to position back to Charlotte to resume it’s international duties.
With the aircraft being allowed into service so quickly, it would indicate none to light damage and was rectified easily by maintenance crews.
As soon as we have more information on this, we will update you accordingly.
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