British Airways plane circles over Lancashire and Bolton before landing at Manchester Airport after pilot declares mid-air emergency

The pilot declared an emergency as the Airbus A320 flew over the border between England and Scotland at around 11:49am on Friday (January 27).

The BA9275 flight left Glasgow Airport at 11:28am and was due to land at London Heathrow Airport at 12:14pm.

But the ‘Squawk 7700’ alert was set off about 25 minutes before the flight was due to land.

A 7700 Squawk code is the signal used by airlines when there is an incident which requires ground assistance but the plane is already in the air.

A map of the plane’s route shows that it circled over Lancashire and Bolton twice before landing at Manchester Airport.

The airline later confirmed no customers were on board.

“Our pilots requested a priority landing in Manchester as a precaution due to a minor technical issue, and the aircraft landed normally,” a spokesperson for British Airways said:

Manchester Airport confirmed the flight had landed at the airport but was not able to give any more information on why the flight had to be grounded.