Untrained pilot found flying London-New York flight, ‘U-turn’ taken to deplane him

A Virgin Atlantic flight that took off from London Heathrow for New York was compelled to make a U-turn. The mid-way return was made because the first officer had not yet completed their latest periodic flying test. It is to be noted that this was not even realised by the ground managers; the first officer had not completed his final test. The incident occurred on flight VS3 after it was 40 minutes into the trip and was flying over Ireland.

The flight was scheduled to from London's Heathrow International Airport to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport. As reported by Simple Flying, the aircraft took off from London at 9:41 later on took the U-turn at 10:19 and landed back in Heathrow at 11:12. The flight was on the ground for around two hours and 45 minutes in Heathrow. At 14:45, it arrived two and a half hours late at its scheduled location.

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The flight was operated by a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330-343 with the registration G-VWAG. The plane is about 9 years old and has a capacity of 261 people. The plane returned to Heathrow and taxied to a gate, where it awaited a new pilot.

Virgin Atlantic has informed passengers that the breach was due to internal training standards rather than any regulatory or safety concerns. In other words, both pilots were properly certified and competent to fly the Airbus A330, but not to Virgin Atlantic's standards, as the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed.

Despite the fact that the first officer had not yet completed his final exam, Virgin Atlantic executives discovered that the seasoned captain was not yet prepared to train the first officer. To guarantee full compliance with the airline's training requirements, the first officer was eventually replaced with a more experienced pilot, and an apology was made to its passengers.

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