London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

A Lufthansa Airbus A350 was forced to emergency land in Angola leaving some passengers stranded in the country for days

A Lufthansa Airbus A350 was forced to emergency land in Angola leaving some passengers stranded in the country for days

Passengers were stuck on the plane for hours after landing, and their passports were confiscated by the Angolan military, per German news outlet NTV.
On Saturday, 271 Lufthansa customers were stranded in Luanda, Angola, after their Airbus A350 aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing, the carrier confirmed to Insider on Monday.

The jet was flying from Cape Town, South Africa, to Munich, Germany, when the plane suffered a "technical irregularity in an engine display" and diverted to the Central African nation, per Lufthansa. 

"The cockpit crew then decided to shut down one engine for landing as a precaution and to land in Luanda with priority status," the airline told Insider. "The aircraft landed safely. Safety on board was not compromised at any time."

According to data from Flightradar24, the plane squawked 7700, which means there is an emergency and the pilots need immediate assistance from air traffic control.

The Aviation Herald, a commercial aircraft accident and incident reporting publication, reported on Monday that the plane was still on the ground in Luanda 20 hours after landing and will need its left engine replaced. Lufthansa told Insider it sent a team of technicians to inspect the aircraft.

According to German news channel NTV, the Angolan military confiscated the passengers' passports in Luanda because they did not have the proper entry documents, and passengers were stuck on the plane for hours before being allowed to disembark. 

The airline told Insider the passengers were given a hotel room, where they "were looked after around the clock by Lufthansa staff." 

It further explained each customer was rebooked within 48 hours. However, NTV reported some passengers were offered flights for days or even weeks later, but Lufthansa told Insider that all passengers will have left by Monday — three days after the diversion to Luanda.

"The first passengers [left] already on Saturday, the remaining passengers fly [Monday] with LH561 via Frankfurt to their destinations," the carrier said. LH561 is a regularly scheduled flight that Lufthansa operates three times a week.

According to Lufthansa, it did not send a rescue flight to retrieve the passengers. Aviation attorney Emile Myburgh, who was involved in the repatriation flight between South Africa and Brazil during the pandemic, told Insider that the airline would need permission for a rescue, making it difficult to quickly send an empty plane, but it is not forbidden by Angola.

This is not the first time this year an airline has landed in less-than-preferred diversion airports. In November, a United Airlines Boeing 787 flying from London Heathrow to San Francisco diverted to Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic due to a mechanical issue. 

Because the small city did not have the necessary maintenance crews, the carrier was forced to cancel a flight from Denver to Frankfurt and reroute the empty aircraft to rescue the stranded passengers. 
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×