Virgin Atlantic flight forced to turn around because pilot was untrained

A Virgin Atlantic was forced to turn back and return to Heathrow when it was discovered that the co-pilot was not a qualified pilot.

The plane was heading to New York and 40 minutes after take off, Virgin Atlantic managers on the ground discovered that the first officers had not finished their exams and was still in training.

This caused chaos with the Airbus A330 as it had to return to London only an hour into the flight on Monday while it was over Ireland. It then had to wait on the tarmac until the airline could find a qualified pilot.