British Airways Flight BA8471 London-Florence Declares Emergency

British Airways flight BA8471, an Embraer ERJ-190 operating from London (LCY) to Florence, has declared an emergency and is diverting to Amsterdam.

A British Airways flight operating from London City Airport to Florence has declared an emergency, squawking transponder code 7700 en route.

British Airways flight BA8471, operated by an Embraer ERJ-190, declared an emergency over Belgian airspace and is now diverting to Amsterdam.

British Airways BA8471 London-Florence

Flight track of British Airways BA8471 London to Florence, showing diversion to Amsterdam.

Flight BA8471 declared the emergency after leaving cruising level FL350 (35,000 feet) on descent. Flight crew squawked code 7700 at 10:14 UTC whilst on descent through FL160. Pilots then initiated a direct track for Amsterdam Schiphol.

10:30 UTC: Landed Amsterdam (AMS)

British Airways flight BA8471 has now landed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS). Flight crew expedited a diversion after declaring an emergency earlier this morning. The nature of the emergency prompting the diversion is not yet known. The flight’s original destination was Florence Airport (FLR).

Flight Details

Flight data shows that flight BA8471 had made a slightly delayed departure out of London city airport this morning. Actual time of departure was logged as 0935 local time, against a scheduled departure time of 0850 local time.

Following this the flight had proceeded normally, climbing to flight level FL350 for the south-westerly service to Florence, Italy.
Operating crew made the diversion as the flight passed abeam Brussels on flight plan track to Florence. A descent was initiated and a direct track to Amsterdam carried out.

Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The aircraft conducting this morning’s BA8471 service from London city airport was an Embraer ERJ-190, registered G-LCAB. This is a 13.3 year old regional aircraft belonging to the carrier British Airways and operated by a subsidiary carrier BA Cityflyer.

It has been operational service with the airline since July 2019. China Southern Airlines operated the aircraft from its initial delivery in August 2011 until its current service.