On Wednesday, an Emirates flight from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) was halfway across Russia when the flight was forced to divert to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) due to a medical emergency. This resulted in the double-decker Airbus A380 making an unplanned 2,485-mile (4,000 km) detour to the British capital.

The plane, which bears registration A6-EVH, was above the Russian town of Nyagan when, according to Airlive, the pilots initiated the left turn towards Western Europe, instead of heading north over the Arctic Circle. Why the aircraft ended up in London, instead of landing anywhere else, is likely due to the airport being one of Emirates’ largest outstations, with dedicated ground crew and support to aid the hundreds of affected passengers.

EK225 Diverted To London Heathrow

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

According to flight data, the plane was operating from Dubai to San Francisco and had departed from the United Arab Emirates on July 29 at 11:06 AM, some close to three hours after its planned departure time of 8:15 AM. The service was to fly nonstop to San Francisco, one of two destinations in the airline’s route map to the US state of California.

Departing from Dubai late morning, the aircraft had planned to fly the 16-hour journey to San Francisco, where, approximately six hours into its long-haul journey, a medical incident occurred onboard, requiring the plane to divert. Given the decision to divert to London Heathrow, it would suggest that the situation wasn’t life-threatening, as otherwise the plane would have likely diverted to the closest possible A380-capable airport.

This saw the plane land in London some 12 hours after the initial departure, and displaced hundreds of passengers and crew. The plane arrived in London at 7:20 PM local time. The airline shared the following statement:

“Emirates flight EK225 from Dubai to San Francisco on July 29 has been diverted to London Heathrow due to a passenger medical emergency.”

A 12 Hour Flight From Dubai To London

Credit: Flightradar24

Usually, a nonstop flight from Dubai to London would take around seven hours, so these passengers who had hoped to travel to San Francisco unexpectedly found themselves in Europe. Emirates had the crew in place to support the unexpected arrival of the aircraft in London, where passengers were accommodated overnight in hotels.

The aircraft remained on the apron at Heathrow overnight, before being rescheduled for travel the following day. Operating as EK225, the plane was scheduled to depart from the British airport at 3:45 PM; however, it was delayed again on departure and pushed back from the gate at 4:46 PM. At the time of writing, the plane remains in the air with an estimated arrival time to San Francisco of 6:33 PM local time.

Emirates maintains a daily flight from Dubai to San Francisco, one of the longest flights in its network covering a distance of 8,103 miles (13,040 km). The carrier flies to a total of 12 destinations in the United States, including New York JFK (JFK), Newark (EWR) via Athens, Boston (BOS), Washington Dulles (IAD), Miami (MIA), Orlando (MCO), Chicago (ORD), Houston (IAH), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO) and Seattle (SEA).

Aircraft Involved: A6-EVH

Credit: Flickr

The aircraft at the center of this diversion was that of A6-EVH, an eight-year-old A380 that makes up the airline’s more than 100 double-deckers. This plane was first delivered to Emirates in December 2018, and is configured with a total capacity of 484 passengers. Further details from ch-aviation are in the table below:

This latest diversion to London comes just a week after another Emirates A380 was diverted due to severe thunderstorms on a flight between Dubai and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG). The plane ended up at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH), where passengers were claimed to have been stuck on the tarmac for around ten hours.