diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index 5c6c6de28a9..33b30fc47b5 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ jetty-7.2-SNAPSHOT
  + JETTY-1250 Parallel start of HandlerCollection
  + JETTY-1256 annotation jars from Orbit
  + JETTY-1261 errant listener usage in StandardDescriptorProcessor
+ + JETTY-1271 handled unavailable exception
  + Fix jetty-plus.xml for new configuration names
  + Added ignore to Logger interface
  + Improved debug dump
diff --git a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/handler/ContextHandler.java b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/handler/ContextHandler.java
index 919195fb098..a57d09db213 100644
--- a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/handler/ContextHandler.java
+++ b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/handler/ContextHandler.java
@@ -709,6 +709,7 @@ public class ContextHandler extends ScopedHandler implements Attributes, Server.
             case __SHUTDOWN:
                 return false;
             case __UNAVAILABLE:
+                baseRequest.setHandled(true);
                 response.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE);
                 return false;
             default:
@@ -924,6 +925,7 @@ public class ContextHandler extends ScopedHandler implements Attributes, Server.
         catch(HttpException e)
         {
             Log.debug(e);
+            baseRequest.setHandled(true);
             response.sendError(e.getStatus(), e.getReason());
         }
         finally