Passengers traveling with German budget airline Eurowings from Düsseldorf in Germany to Tromsø in Norway were left unimpressed after an eight-hour journey that saw them landing back at the German airport from where they had originally departed. The unfortunate set of events unfolded on Saturday, March 15, 2025, as Eurowings flight EW9250 headed from Düsseldorf to the city of Tromsø in northern Norway, a journey of 1,344 miles (2,150 km) that should take around three hours to complete under normal circumstances.
Flight EW9250, operated by one of Eurowings Airbus A320 aircraft registered as D-ABHG, departed from Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) at 14:59 local time on the day in question and was due to land in Tromsø at 18:15. The aircraft departed without incident and climbed to 35,000ft (10,500ft) as it headed north, clipping Denmark as it headed up the spine of Norway to its final destination. However, as the flight approached Tromsø, air traffic control reported winds at the arrival airport had reached speeds of up to 48 knots (88 km/h) which were outside of those permitted for crews to land in by the operating airline.

The pilots onboard EW9250 elected to divert to Rovaniemi Airport (RVN) across the border in Northern Finland, where they intended to land and wait for the winds to drop back at Tromsø. According to data obtained from Flightradar 24, the flight descended to around 8,000ft (2,400m) as it headed to land at Rovaniemi Airport before the crew were advised that the winds had dropped at Tromsø. Without touching down in Rovaniemi, the aircraft turned around once again and headed back over the border into Norwegian airspace.
As the flight began its second approach of the day into Tromsø Airport, once again the air traffic controllers reported to the crew that the winds recorded at the airfield had exceeded 41 knots (75 km/h). With any landing at the airport still prohibited with such windspeeds, the crew of the flight finally decided that the best course of action at that point would be to return to Düsseldorf. By this point, the aircraft had already been in the air for around five hours.
Turning south, the aircraft headed back to its point of origin, and eventually landed back in Düsseldorf at 21:49, almost eight hours after first departing earlier that afternoon. Eurowings reportedly arranged overnight accommodation for the passengers who had endured an afternoon of flying to nowhere, while those more local returned to their homes to try again the following day.

On the morning of Sunday, March 16, 2025, the 101 passengers who elected to have another attempt at getting to Norway departed from Düsseldorf on the same Eurowings A320 and arrived safely at Tromsø Airport at 10:59. The aircraft subsequently returned to Düsseldorf carrying those passengers who had been stranded in Tromsø overnight. Due to the adverse weather at the Norwegian airport on March 15, 2025, a total of 13 flights scheduled to depart the airport were canceled due to strong winds.