British Airways passengers heading from Heathrow to Hong Kong suffer 11-hour 'flight to nowhere'

A British Airways flight to Hong Kong was forced to turn back more than a third of the way into its 12-hour journey after developing a “technical issue”.

Flight BA31 was 35,000ft over Turkmenistan when the Boeing 777-200 aircraft was turned back to London on Sunday, according to data from tracking site FlightRadar24.

The flight reportedly landed at Heathrow just before 8am local time, more than 11 hours after its departure.

In a statement, the airline: “The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue.

“It landed safely and customers disembarked as normal. We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their journey.”

Unfortunately Flight BA32 was beset by more problems later on Sunday - as it was diverted to Budapest three hours into its journey due to an onboard medical emergency.

It is not the first time a British Airways plane has taken a “flight to nowhere” in recent weeks.

Earlier this month a flight from Heathrow to Texas had to turn back just as it reached North America, landing back in London more than nine hours after taking off.

Flight records show passengers travelled 7,779km on the “flight to nowhere” after a minor technical issue forced the flight to turn around.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was heading to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and had just crossed the Canadian border before turning back.

The flight was in the air for just over nine-and-a-half hours crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice, according to tracking site FlightRadar24.