Not once, but twice diverted. It wasn’t a good day on a British Airways flight.
A British Airways flight from the Bahamas to London experienced a significant delay of no less than eleven hours after the aircraft had to divert twice due to a medical emergency. Flight BA252, which had departed from Grand Cayman Island and made a short stopover in Nassau, Bahamas, went quite differently than planned.
“Is there a doctor on board?”
The flight initially went according to plan: the aircraft departed at 6:21 PM local time from Grand Cayman Island and completed the first leg to Nassau in about an hour. It then began the scheduled eight-hour journey to London. However, about five hours after departure, a medical emergency occurred onboard, necessitating an unscheduled landing. The aircraft was diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada. This airport is often used as a diversion point for transatlantic flights. Although the nature of the medical situation has not been disclosed, it was deemed serious enough by British Airways to require immediate intervention.
After #BA252’s last flight to London ended up with a diversion to Gander, the continuation of the flight has just diverted to Reykjavik (KEF). https://t.co/DE6vnxEGmu pic.twitter.com/yI3v9vw1ij
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) April 9, 2025
A new problem
After landing in Gander, a new issue became apparent: the crew was approaching the maximum allowed working hours according to regulations on duty times. To ensure safety and stay within the guidelines, British Airways decided to divert the flight again, this time to Reykjavik, Iceland, to swap the crew. The flight from Gander to Reykjavik took an additional three hours, after which a fresh team took over from the original crew. This extra stop caused further delays. After the detour, the aircraft headed towards London and landed on Wednesday evening at 10:38 PM – more than eleven hours later than originally scheduled.