Laser strike forces Virgin Atlantic flight to turn back to London

(credit: Adrian Pingstone)

A Virgin Atlantic aircraft was forced to abandon its flight from London to New York after it was "hit by a laser strike."

Not long into the flight, a pilot on the aircraft—which had set off from the capital's Heathrow airport—made a distress call confirming that the 15 crew, and 252 passengers on board flight VS025 needed to return to London as a precaution.

He calmly explained the situation to Irish air traffic control: "We have a medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident after take off. We're going to return to Heathrow," he said, according to an audio recording of the drama.

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