A KLM Boeing 777 turned around over the Atlantic, leaving passengers on a 4-hour flight to nowhere

• A KLM Boeing 777 flying from the Netherlands to South America turned around over the Atlantic Ocean.
• The passengers were traveling to the small nation of Suriname but ended up back in Amsterdam.
• Diverting back to an airline's hub can make it simpler to reroute passengers or make repairs.

A KLM plane U-turned over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving passengers with a four-hour flight to nowhere.

The Boeing 777 left Amsterdam for Paramaribo, the capital of the small South American nation of Suriname on Sunday.

Data from Flightradar24 shows the flight departed on time. But two hours into the journey and around 900 nautical miles from Amsterdam, the Boeing 777 turned around over the ocean and headed back.

It landed back at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport about four hours after takeoff. The flight to Suriname, which was once a Dutch colony and still uses Dutch as an official language, typically takes just under nine hours.

The Aviation Herald, which first reported the incident, said the pilots told air traffic control the plane had a small leak, but it wasn't clear what type.

A KLM spokesperson told Business Insider said there was a "technical malfunction," adding: "As a precaution, the aircraft returned after two hours of flying."

Passengers flew on a replacement aircraft about eight hours after the scheduled departure time.

The 777 was back in service the following day, per Flightradar24.

It's not the first time that passengers have been left with a flight to nowhere in recent weeks.

Last month, an American Airlines flight encountered turbulence on the way from Brazil to Miami. It turned back to São Paulo, while one passenger was taken to hospital.

In late October, a British Airways Boeing 777 developed a problem over the Atlantic. It turned back to London and left passengers with a nine-hour flight to nowhere.

For carriers flying transatlantic, a flight to nowhere is often the best decision when something goes wrong. It's typically simpler for airlines to reroute passengers and fix planes back at their hub airports.

But sometimes diversions to non-hub airports are unavoidable. In May, for instance, an Air France jet made an urgent landing in Canada's far north, causing a different flight to be canceled to rescue the passengers.