Bristol flight turns back due to technical issue

The flight, on ATR G-OGFC, took off at 1.40pm as scheduled but turned around after flying around 30km and before it reached 10,000ft.

The plane returned to Guernsey where it flew a loop to the south of the island before landing at 2.05pm.

A Guernsey Airport spokesman said ‘local standby’ – a level below emergency – was called at 2pm, but cancelled after the flight had landed and returned to stand.

The return flight from Bristol to Guernsey was subsequently cancelled.

The plane was scheduled to fly to Gatwick later that afternoon and led to some flight delays.

An Aurigny spokesman confirmed that the plane had been forced to return due a technical issue, but did not give any details about the fault.

‘The aircraft landed as normal and the team is rebooking all affected customers onto the next available service,’ she said.

‘We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.

'We ask for understanding that the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is of the highest importance and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.’

Air Serbia is new owner of Aurigny’s former jet

Aurigny’s former jet, meanwhile, has undertaken its first flight for Air Serbia.

Aurigny sold G-NSEY in July 2024 in a bid to focus on operating just ATRs on most of its routes and to reduce costs, as the 10-year-old plane needed expensive work.

The plane has since been painted white, and re-registered YU-ATC.

Air Serbia has listed on its website that it has taken on the Embraer E-195 as a new aircraft for its fleet and YU-ATC was transported from Exeter – where it has been stored – to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport in the Serbian capital in late April.

Yesterday the plane flew from Belgrade to the Montenegrin capital Podgorica in 35 minutes.