United passengers from New York to London endured a flight to nowhere and an 11-hour delay - then got to the UK after their original plane

Flight 934 departed Newark Liberty shortly after 9 a.m. and turned back about 20 minutes later short of Boston. The Boeing 767 circled roughly six times over upstate New York and returned to Newark 1 hour 45 minutes after departure. A United spokesperson said the aircraft returned to Newark to address a possible maintenance issue. All passengers deplaned normally at the gate and United arranged a different aircraft to complete the flight to London. The replacement flight took off shortly after 8 p.m., producing about a nine-hour wait and resulting in passengers arriving roughly 11 hours later than scheduled. The original 22-year-old aircraft, N684UA, later operated another flight to London and landed before the deplaned passengers.

After a United Airlines flight U-turned and landed back in Newark, passengers reached London 11 hours later than expected, and after their original plane. Thursday's Flight 934 took off from Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after 9 a.m. However, data from Flightradar24 shows that just around 20 minutes later, the Boeing 767 turned around short of Boston. It then circled half a dozen times over upstate New York before landing back at Newark, 1 hour and 45 minutes after departing from there.

A United spokesperson said the flight "returned to Newark to address a possible maintenance issue." The 767 involved in the incident, registered as N684UA, is 22 years old. "The flight landed safely, and all passengers deplaned normally at the gate," the spokesperson said. "We arranged for a different aircraft to take our customers to London, which landed at 7:30 a.m. local time on Friday."

Flight-tracking data shows the second flight, UAL934D, took off from Newark shortly after 8 p.m. That means passengers had a nine-hour wait in New Jersey before they were back on their way to London. The first plane was scheduled to touch down in England at 8:40 p.m. local time Thursday, but ultimately, passengers arrived just over 11 hours later. Meanwhile, flight-tracking data shows the plane with the "possible maintenance issue" arrived in London first on Friday morning.

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