Flight from London to New York turned back halfway: it turned out that the pilot did not complete the necessary training

Passengers were furious after a Virgin Atlantic flight bound for New York turned back to London. The reason was that the co-pilot is not allowed to fly because he did not pass the final assessment, reports New York Post.

The Airbus A330 took off on May 2 as scheduled from Heathrow Airport to Kennedy Airport. However, after 40 minutes of flight, the airliner turned back. During the flight, the captain learned that his colleague, the co-pilot, had not completed the flight training program. In fact, he needed one more flight with an instructor commander to be fully qualified.

After returning to Heathrow, the co-pilot was replaced and the flight resumed its journey to the Big Apple, where it landed 2 hours and 40 minutes late.

Both original crew members were fully licensed and qualified, sources said. And the captain is “very experienced” with “many thousands of hours in the air in 17 years at Virgin Atlantic.” The co-pilot, who joined the airline in 2017, was waiting for the flight with a “final rating”. Virgin Atlantic blamed the situation on a "registry error" associated with flight VS3.

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All this confusion with the pilots did not please the passengers, who were forced to wait on the airfield at Heathrow for a crew change. They weren't even compensated for the delay, as it's only given if the flight arrives four hours late.

A couple from Bournemouth in the UK described the experience on board: “The ship had barely left the west coast of Ireland when the captain announced that we had made a 180-degree turn and were returning to Heathrow due to an 'administrative error'. I was very upset that I lost vacation time. My husband and I only stayed in New York for three nights.”

The Aviation Administration said that “Virgin Atlantic has made them aware of the incident. Both pilots were licensed and qualified to fly.”

“The pairing of the pilots did not violate any aviation or safety regulations. But it didn't fit with Virgin Atlantic's internal training protocols, so we decided to turn back," spokeswoman Grace Peaty explained.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers who arrived 2 hours 40 minutes late due to a crew change,” the airline said in a statement.