A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Toronto took a flight to nowhere on Monday after it became apparent the aircraft was scheduled for maintenance.
Passengers on Flight KL691 were scheduled to depart 11.20 a.m. local time from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Monday, but faced a first hurdle when the Airbus A330 intended for the flight had to be withdrawn from service.
A replacement plane was found, eventually taking off around two hours after its scheduled departure. The flight reached roughly halfway across the Atlantic Ocean before turning back and returning to Amsterdam, data from Flightradar24 shows.
KLM confirmed to Business Insider that the U-turn was caused by the aircraft reaching a “maintenance deadline.”
“During flight KL691 from Amsterdam to Toronto, it was decided to return to Schiphol as a precaution after it became apparent during the flight that the replacement aircraft (PH-AKA) would reach its maintenance deadline,” the airline said in a statement.
“The aircraft was fully airworthy at the time of departure. To prevent the license from expiring during the flight, it was decided to return to perform the maintenance in the Netherlands.
One person who said they were on the flight shared their experience on Reddit, alongside a photo of their in-flight screen.
“Literally mid-flight we got the announcement that the plane they got was not supposed to fly and needed big maintenance that was due today unable to perform in Toronto, so back to Amsterdam,” the user wrote.
“Pilot and crew were very apologetic,” they added.
Aircraft have strict maintenance schedules to ensure they are checked thoroughly and remain airworthy.
When aircraft experience in-flight issues or problems like the one encountered by flight KL691, it is often easier for airlines to return to their home bases rather than attempting to fix problems thousands of miles away.
This often leads to so-called flights to nowhere, where airliners turn back, often thousands of miles into their journey, to return home.
As well as making fixing issues easier, returning to a home base also makes it simpler to rebook passengers onto new flights, as was the case with KLM’s flight to Toronto.
“Although all passengers were rebooked upon arrival, we naturally find it very unfortunate for the passengers who were affected by this,” KLM said in its statement.
