Virgin Atlantic flight to Orlando just declared an emergency and is diverting.
The flight is operated by an Airbus A350-1000 (registration G-VLIB) which is was delivered in 2022.
The aircraft departed London Heathrow at 15:19 BST for a 9 hours and 15 minutes flight to Florida.
While cruising at 37,000 ft, the crew declared a general emergency (squawk 7700) before heading to St. John’s.
St. John’s International (YYT) is the first main airport a heavy commercial plane can reach after crossing the Atlantic. It is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada. The annual traffic was 1,260,000 passengers in 2023.
UPDATE 20:35 GMT
The flight is diverting to St Johns due to a customer requiring urgent medical attention.
UPDATE 20:49 GMT (5:19 local time)
The A350K has landed on runway 16 in St Johns.
UPDATE 21:00 GMT
Once the customer has been offloaded, the crew will require to refuel to continue to Orlando.
UPDATE
Flight VS135 finally landed at 10:15pm (local time) at Orlando.
The aircraft configuration is 16 seats in business class, 56 in premium and 325 in economy.
