Storm Ciara’s powerful winds help British Airways flight from New York to Heathrow break 800mph speed record

AS POWERFUL winds of 90mph sweep across the United Kingdom bringing heavy disruption to travel, Storm Ciaria’s adverse weather conditions has helped a British Airways flight to set a new record.

The BA flight from New York to London took just 4 hours and 56 minutes on Saturday night (February 8), reaching speeds of up to 800mph – which means that the flight is has broken the fastest-ever subsonic New York to London crossing time.

According to Flightradar24, an online flight tracking service, the British Airways Boeing 747 departing JFK airport reached Heathrow in dazzling speed, smashing the previous record set by Norwegian Airways which took five hours and 13 minutes in January 2018.

Fastest across the Atlantic tonight from New York to London so far is #BA112 at 4hr56m. #VS4 in 4:57, and #VS46 in 4:59. https://t.co/gfYoHGV3Y6https://t.co/kMhjCqdEtt

If we're not mistaken, BA now retakes the fastest subsonic NY-London crossing from Norwegian. pic.twitter.com/Sr1GPeAjuh

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 9, 2020

The plane reached its fastest ground speed of 825mph by Newfoundland at about 35,000ft, according to the online tracking tool.

In a statement released about the record, British Airways said: “We always prioritise safety over speed records, but our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time.”

The average flight time for the journey is usually made within six hours and 13 minutes, however wind speeds of 250mph in the jet stream pushed the BA jet to increase it speed.