A British Airways plane was forced to ask 20 passengers to land shortly before Florence’s offspring to London due to the overweight of the aircraft under extreme heat conditions. The episode, reported by the British newspaper The Sun and quoted by the magazine specializing in Economy and Business Executive Digest, drew attention to the purposes of high temperatures on commercial aviation and the challenges that could aggravate with climate change.
Cause of the problem
According to the information disclosed, the problem arose because heat reduces air density, which directly interferes with wing support and engine efficiency. This combination increases fuel consumption and requires companies to take last -minute measures to ensure flight safety.
The track also ‘did not help’
The case was even more delicate due to the relatively short track of Américo Vespuio airport in Florence. To compensate for the lack of air density, a higher acceleration would be required to allow dropout.
Given this limitation, the solution was to reduce the total weight of the aircraft through passenger landing.
There were 36, they became 20
Initially, British Airways reported that 36 passengers would have to leave the plane before taking off. However, after new calculations, the number was reduced to 20. One of the passengers, cited by the same source, reported that the pilot explained the situation on board, justifying the decision with unusual temperatures.
The airline apologized for the inconvenience and assured that the affected passengers would reach the final destination as soon as possible. The reorganization operation took about two and a half hours, between luggage collection, relocation on other flights and logistical support.
What the experts say
Experts cited by the same source claim that situations like this can no longer be exceptional. Jonny Williams, a researcher at Reading University, warned that extreme heat phenomena, which once occurred on average once a year, could repeat themselves several times a week by 2060.
If this scenario is confirmed, airlines will have to adapt, whether it is limiting the number of passengers, or increasing costs to compensate for operational constraints, which could make air travel to certain more expensive and less practical European destinations during the summer months.
According to, this episode in Florence emerges as a concrete example of the immediate impacts that global warming may have on air transport, raising questions about the future of international mobility under increasing heat conditions.
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