Passengers endured a 9-hour flight to nowhere after a Boeing 777 developed a problem over the Atlantic

• A British Airways plane turned around midway through a 10-hour journey.
• The passengers were traveling to Costa Rica, but ended up back in London.
• Diverting back to an airline's hub can make it simpler to reroute passengers or make repairs.

A British Airways plane turned around while halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, meaning passengers endured a nine-hour flight to nowhere.

The Boeing 777 left London on Tuesday morning for San José in Costa Rica.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the flight departed about 30 minutes late. Nearly five hours into the journey, the Boeing 777 made a sharp U-turn over the ocean and headed back toward Europe.

The plane landed back at London Gatwick about nine hours after takeoff. The flight to Costa Rica typically takes about 10 hours.

Overall, the plane flew around 4,000 miles.

"We're sorry for the delay in our customers' travel plans after their aircraft experienced a minor technical issue," a British Airways spokesperson told Business Insider.

"Our teams looked after our customers during the delay and worked hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible."

It was not the first time in recent months that BA passengers have suffered a flight to nowhere.

In June, a Boeing 787s turned around after flying 2,300 miles to Canada's Newfoundland after a technical problem was detected.

Diversions can be a nuisance for passengers and costly for airlines.

It's relatively common for British Airways flights to return to a London airport hub when a technical issue arises as it's easier and cheaper to rearrange replacement flights and repair the the aircraft.

The Boeing 777 involved in Tuesday's U-turn was flying again the following day, per Flightradar24.

For European carriers, a flight to nowhere is likely preferable to the situation involving an Air France jet in May. A burning smell in the cabin prompted an emergency landing in Canada's far north — causing a different flight to be canceled to rescue the passengers.