British Airways BA295 squawks 7700, drops 28,000 feet before turning back to London

British Airways flight BA295 from London to Chicago reportedly squawked 7700, the international emergency transponder code, over Ireland on Monday and dropped more than 28,000 feet before being diverted to London, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Radar.

The Boeing 777-200ER departed from London Heathrow at around 11.50 am local time and was on a scheduled eight-hour and 40-minute flight to Chicago. It climbed to around 37,000 feet before making a rapid descent to approximately 9,000 feet. The reason for the emergency has not been made clear yet.

The incident comes less than a week after a Flydubai incident on the Dubai-Tel Aviv route, which drew worldwide attention. Flight FZ1073 plunged 17,400 feet in just under two minutes. It was later revealed that the captain and the copilot of the flight had reportedly been involved in a physical struggle. Authorities are investigating the details of the incident.