A London Gatwick flight was forced to make an emergency landing moments after takeoff earlier this week after a fire broke out on board.
The TAP Air Portugal flight, which had departed Gatwick for Porto on Sunday morning, made a rapid U-turn minutes after takeoff on February 8 and landed safely about 10 minutes later.
It’s been reported that the pilots onboard the Airbus A320-214 broadcast a Squawk 7700 alert during the ascent before they quickly returned to Gatwick.
It’s understood that the flight crew reported a fire in the galley while the aircraft was climbing to about 4,300 feet, prompting the subsequent emergency landing.
According to AirLive, the aircraft was met by emergency teams on the ground and diverted to a remote part of the airport for a technical assessment.
The flight eventually took off again at 12.20pm and was able to make it safely to Portugal several hours after its scheduled arrival time.
It is not yet clear what caused the fire.
In recent months, there has been a global clampdown on the use of power banks on airlines due to increased risk of fire linked to lithium-ion batteries.
In January of this year, Lufthansa became the first European airline to ban the use of power banks on flights due to safety concerns.
Other airlines, such as Qantas and Virgin Australia, have similarly implemented stricter rules on powerbank use in recent months due to fire risk concerns.
This week’s London fire incident also came not long after London Gatwick was named among the world's most stressful airports.
Among the biggest grievances facing Gatwick passengers are the bottlenecks and delays that sometimes occur. Despite being London’s second-busiest airport, it currently has only one runway.
