Please keep your seatbelts securely fastened while we replace the pilot.

A Virgin Atlantic flight headed to New York City was ordered to return to London after it was determined that the first officer hadn’t completed his final flying test.

The incident happened on Monday, shortly after flight VS3 began its journey to the other sight of the Atlantic.

About 30 minutes after takeoff, when the nine-year-old Airbus A330-300 was flying off the east coast of Ireland, the aircraft had to do a U-turn and return to London.

The issue was caused by a “rostering error,” according to an airline spokesperson. Nobody’s life was ever at risk.

Both pilots are fully qualified and licensed to fly the aircraft, according to the airline. However, the first officer — who had joined the company in 2017 — still needed to finish Virgin Atlantic’s internal “final assessment” flight, so he could be designated as a trainer.

“The qualified first officer, who was flying alongside an experienced captain, was replaced with a new pilot to ensure full compliance with Virgin Atlantic’s training protocols, which exceed industry standards,” a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman told the BBC.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers, who arrived two hours and 40 minutes later than scheduled as a result of the crew change,” the spokeswoman added.

According to travel news site One Mile at a Time, even though the pairing of pilots breached “internal training protocols,” they were still in line with U.K. Civil Aviation Authority requirements.

Source: nydailynews