U.S.-bound United Airlines lands back in London after 'maintenance issue'

LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S.-bound United Airlines flight with 240 people aboard has returned to London's Heathrow airport, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, after an unspecified maintenance issue forced it to circle for hours above the English Channel on Wednesday. Flight UA28 to Newark, New Jersey, operated by a Boeing 767 aircraft, had been circling off the south coast of England for more than four hours before it landed at Heathrow at about 1546 GMT. Earlier, United said in a statement: "United Airlines flight UA28 ... with 227 customers and a crew of 13 on board, is returning to Heathrow because of a maintenance issue." It did not elaborate. (Reporting by Sarah Young and Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)