Flight breaks transatlantic speed record - msnNOW

A New York-to-London flight landed in the history books Sunday as the fastest subsonic flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

© NurPhoto via Getty Images, FILE A British Airways Boeing 747-400 airplane lands at Heathrow International Airport in London, August, 2 2019.

British Airways Flight 112 made the trip in 4 hours 56 minutes -- 17 minutes faster than the previous record made by a Norwegian flight from New York to London, according to the flight tracker blog Flightradar24.

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The blog said the 747 jet took advantage of a jet stream in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, which some pilots are using to increase speed and decrease fuel.

"During its speed record cruise across the Atlantic, BA112 traveled at a consistent Mach 0.86 or 86 percent of the speed of sound," FlightRadar24 said in its posting.

Representatives from British Airways did not immediately return messages for comment.

MORE: Supersonic Speed Demons: Breaking the Sound Barrier

The Atlantic jet stream is powering Storm Ciara, which is hitting the U.K. with hurricane-force winds and severely disrupting air travel in Europe.

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2020-02-09 21:33:00Z
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