Virgin Atlantic left 226 passengers scratching their heads on Friday after essentially using a flight from London to Boston to taxi one of its pilots.
According to The Independent, the trans-Atlantic flight from Heathrow Airport was delayed over 90 minutes as a result of the unexpected pit stop in Manchester, England.
"Your flight to Boston will be operating via Manchester today. In order for us to ensure our customers are able to fly from Manchester to New York today, we need to fly one of our pilots to Manchester," the airline said in a letter to passengers. "We have looked at other options to achieve this, but this is the only option available to use."
While the flight departed London on schedule, passengers were forced to remain seated on the tarmac at Manchester Airport for roughly 90 minutes while the Boeing 787 was refueled.
The flight ultimately arrived in Boston just 96 minutes behind schedule. However, passengers awaiting the return flight to London were delayed by around two hours.
"Unfortunately one of our pilots in Manchester fell unwell and therefore, rather than cancel a flight, we took the decision to take a pilot from our London Heathrow base to operate the aircraft," a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told The Independent. "We never want to disappoint our customers, nor make unnecessary diversions, and this was the only option available aside from canceling flight VS127."
"This was a very exceptional situation and we'd like to thank our customers on the VS11 for their understanding for the minor delay they experienced."
The Independent reported the pilot originally scheduled to fly the Manchester-New York route fell ill about four hours before the London-Boston flight took off and no other pilots were available to fly the Airbus A330 out of Manchester.
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The diversion is estimated to have cost the airline approximately $13,500 (£10,000) based on the extra fuel, air traffic control and airport handling charges. The estimate also factors in wear and tear on the aircraft resulting from an additional takeoff and landing.
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