Virgin Atlantic Flight Turns Back Mid-Air After It Emerged Pilot Was Still in Training

A Virgin Airways aircraft at Heathrow Airport in London, England, on Oct. 11, 2016. Jack Taylor/Getty Images

A Virgin Atlantic flight headed to New York was forced to turn back to London after it emerged one of the pilots hadn’t completed the airline’s final internal flying test.

The Airbus A330—which can carry nearly 300 passengers—was ordered to return to London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday about 40 minutes into the flight bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after the pilots became aware of a “rostering error.”