A BRITISH AIRWAYS transatlantic flight bound for Boston was forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in the early hours of the morning after developing an in-flight technical fault.

BA flight 239 from London Heathrow to Boston Logan had departed London two hours behind schedule last night, and had travelled about 200 km off the coast of Co Kerry before developing an unspecified technical fault.

The crew on board made a request to Shannon to facilitate an emergency landing, and the plane touched down safely shortly after midnight. 236 passengers were on board.

A spokesman for Shannon Airport confirmed that the passengers were accommodated in Shannon overnight, ahead of an alternative attempted departure from Shannon to Boston this morning.

Though a departure on the same flight number was this morning scheduled from Shannon for 9:05am, the spokesman said that the resumed flight was not likely to depart until around noon.

The aircraft used for the flight, a Boeing 777-236, is regularly deployed on transatlantic and long-distance flights, but had not been used in passenger flight for just over a week before last night’s aborted flight.

British Airways had yet to return contact at the time of publication.