Virgin flight transporting miners to the Pilbara forced to circle Perth for 2 hours

A flight carrying FIFO workers to a mining region in Western Australia was forced to circle the coast off a major city for two hours.

A flight loaded with FIFO workers spent nearly two hours circling the Perth coast after suffering a technical difficulty.

Perth Virgin flight VA9081 left the city’s airport at 7.15am AWST (9.15am AEST) on Thursday headed for Boolgeeda airport in the Pilbara mining region.

Boolgeeda airport services workers of the Rio Tinto mining company.

A Virgin flight from Perth had to make an emergency landing. Picture: Flight Aware

The flight travelled up the Joondalup coast before turning in a circle at an altitude of 5000 feet.

Bizarrely, it continued to do this for almost two more hours.

A Perth airport spokeswoman said the Fokker F100 aircraft was experiencing a technical issue and had lost flap control, according to WA Today.

The plane landed at 9.19am AWST (11.19am AEST) and was greeted by emergency services.

More to come

Originally published as Virgin flight transporting miners to the Pilbara forced to circle Perth for 2 hours