British Airways issues statement after flight diverts in 'emergency' to Manchester Airport

British Airways have confirmed a flight to Scotland was diverted to Manchester Airport this morning due to a 'suspected technical issue'.

The flight BA1306 took off from London Heathrow today (September 27) at 8.45am as scheduled. The plane was headed for Aberdeen.

But the flight was diverted to Manchester Airport en-route. Flight tracker website Flightradar24 showed the aircraft appearing to change direction while over Northamptonshire before heading north west.

According to reports on X, formerly Twitter, the plane made an 'emergency landing'. This was reportedly due to 'smoke and fumes in the cockpit', a number of Aviation accounts claimed.

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A spokesperson for British Airways has now issued a statement over the diversion. The airline said the plane was diverted to Manchester as a 'precaution' due to a 'suspected technical issue'.

BA apologised to passengers onboard for the disruption. The spokesperson said: "Our aircraft was diverted as a precaution because of a suspected technical issue.

"We’re sorry to our customers for the disruption to their journeys and our teams are working to get them on their way again as quickly as possible."

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