Nine Aircraft Declare Fuel Emergencies After BA A320 Blocks Gatwick Runway

Nine passenger aircraft bound for London Gatwick declared fuel emergencies and transmitted emergency transponder code 7700 after a British Airways Airbus A320 became disabled on the airport's sole operational runway. Flight BA2673, arriving from Palma de Mallorca, suffered a nose-wheel steering malfunction that left it immobilized on Runway 08L, according to reports from AirLive and Simple Flying.

Operational Disruption

With the runway blocked for nearly five hours, air traffic control held inbound flights in extended holding patterns. As fuel reserves fell to critical safety thresholds, nine aircraft — operated by easyJet, British Airways, Jet2 and TUI Airways — declared fuel emergencies to secure priority handling for diversions. In total, 14 flights were diverted to alternate airports including London Luton, London Stansted, Birmingham, Bristol and Heathrow.

Safety and Recovery

A fuel emergency declaration does not mean an aircraft has exhausted its fuel; rather, it signals that the crew can no longer remain in a holding pattern while preserving mandated safety reserves. All nine aircraft that declared emergencies landed safely at their respective alternates. A Gatwick spokesperson confirmed the runway was temporarily closed due to a technical issue, and British Airways said passengers disembarked normally after the fault. The disabled A320, registration G-GATS, was subsequently pulled from its scheduled rotation.