British Airways passengers endure 'nine-hour flight to nowhere' after plane returns to Heathrow within miles of destination

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was heading to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and had just crossed the Canadian border before turning back.

According to tracking site FlightRadar24, the flight was in the air for just over nine-and-a-half hours crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice.

A spokesperson from BA said in a statement: "The flight returned to London Heathrow as a precaution due to a minor technical issue. It landed safely and customers disembarked as normal.

"We’ve apologised to our customers for the disruption to their journey."

All passengers were rebooked onto alternative flights to Houston, including any missed connecting flights in the US, reports The Standard.

It comes after Travellers on board a transatlantic flight from the Netherlands to the US were minding their own business when fly larvae began to flow out of a compartment above – leaving one unfortunate woman "trying to fight [them] off".

Flight attendants had scoured the cabin for the source of the pests before the owner stood up to claim the offending article, which had begun to stink.

Passengers’ troubles were only compounded when the flight’s pilot announced the aircraft would be doing a 180 and returning to Amsterdam.

The plane was subsequently evacuated and deep-cleaned, while customers were forced onto later flights.

Philip Schotte, a Dutch man who lives in Iowa, was seated opposite the incident and detailed his experience to Fox 2 Detroit.

Schotte said: "She was freaking out – she was just trying to fight off these maggots.

"I don’t really know what was going through my mind… I was trying to process it – disgust is one thing of course… We had to wait there for help."