British Airways flight BA118 returns to Bengaluru after ‘technical issue’

British Airways flight BA118 from Bengaluru to London was forced to return to Kempegowda International Airport on Friday afternoon due to an alleged technical malfunction. The flight, originally scheduled to depart at 6.45 am IST, had faced a one-hour delay before taking off at 7.40 am. 

A passenger on board reported being informed of a malfunction in the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which prompted the aircraft to turn back nearly two hours after departure, having reached airspace near Oman. The aircraft, Boeing 772, has now safely landed back at Bengaluru. “BA118 BLR LON this morning returned to BLR after a few hours. We are still in the plane but no valid information other than saying they have no info. Hope to get onto the skies soon,” Satish Medapatti, one of the passengers on board, said on X. Replying to the query, British Airways acknowledged that there was a disruption in service and that it would be assisting with the booking. The TCAS is an airborne safety system designed to prevent mid-air collisions by monitoring nearby aircraft equipped with active transponders. It provides pilots with traffic advisories for potential threats and resolution advisories with specific manoeuvres (e.g., climb or descend) to avoid collisions. The system operates independently of ground-based air traffic control, using Secondary Surveillance Radar transponder signals to track altitude and range.