Moment British Airways flight suffers double tail strike in aborted landing at Heathrow Airport

Published: 13:30 EST, 12 November 2026 | Updated: 13:45 EST, 12 November 2026 A British Airways flight was forced to abort a landing at Heathrow Airport today. Flight BA431 suffered a double tail strike, when the rear of an aircraft scrapes along the runway surface, on Thursday as it attempted to land following a flight from Amsterdam. New footage has emerged showing the Airbus A321 Neo approaching the runway of Heathrow's Terminal 5 at around 10.30am.The aircraft appears to sway from side to side before its left wheel touches down on the runway.After the right wheel makes contact, the plane's tail scrapes along the tarmac in what is known as a double tail strike.It then takes off again, with pilots performing a so-called go-around, as it leant slightly to the left. The aircraft was forced to attempt the landing again, eventually landing at 10.49am.BigJet TV, which tracks aircraft, raised the alarm this morning. New footage has emerged showing the Airbus A321 Neo approaching the runway of Heathrow's Terminal 5 at around 10.30am on Thursday (Supplied: BigJet TV) The aircraft appeared to sway from side to side before its left wheel touched down on the runway (Supplied: BigJet TV) After the right wheel made contact, the plane's tail scraped along the tarmac in what is known as a double tail strike (Supplied: BigJet TV) It then took off again, with pilots performing a so-called go-around, and landed at 10.49am (Supplied: BigJet TV)Alongside the clip, they wrote on X: 'Caught live on our 24/7 Camera BA431 encountered a double tail strike upon landing at Heathrow Airport this morning. What happened here?'This morning's forecast at Heathrow was northwest winds, with gusts of around 16km/h (10mph). An investigation has since been launched by British Airways into the incident.It comes after a British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency U-turn in October after declaring a mid-air emergency over reports of a cracked window. The BA EuroFlyer service was headed from London Gatwick to Faro, Portugal, that morning when it had to make the urgent diversion just one hour after take-off.Pilots issued a mid-air emergency at around 9am, shortly after passing Brittany, France.The pilots had noticed 'structural damage to a window panel on the right side of the aircraft', according to aviation news outlet AirLive.The Airbus A321-231 could also be seen heading back to London, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.A British Airways spokesperson said: 'The aircraft landed safely and we're assisting the AAIB with its investigation and are legally unable to comment further at this stage.'