New York to London flight breaks the record for the fastest transatlantic journey in subsonic passenger plane

Record breaker: The Norwegian Airlines flight touched down 53 minutes earlier than expected.
Shutterstock / Philip Pilosian
Patrick Grafton-Green19 January 2018

A flight from New York to London has broken the record for the fastest ever journey in a subsonic passenger jet, touching down after just over five hours.

The Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was pushed by a powerful jet stream as it travelled across the Atlantic and touched down 53 minutes earlier than expected.

It set off from JFK at 11.44am local time before reaching a top speed of 776mph and landing at London Gatwick at 9.57pm GMT on Monday.

The flight clocked up a journey time of five hours and 16 minutes, three minutes faster than the previous record set by a British Airways flight in 2015.

Harold van Dam, the captain of flight DY7014, said if it wasn’t for turbulence the journey time could have been even shorter, Mail Online reported.

He said: “We were actually in the air for just over five hours and if it had not been for forecasted turbulence at lower altitude, we could have flown even faster.’”

The passenger jet, which was helped along by a 202mph jet stream, was carrying 284 passengers.

The fastest ever Atlantic crossing was achieved by a British Airways Concorde flight from New York to London, which took just two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.

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