British Airways evacuates passengers from plane at Heathrow after four taken ill from unknown 'fumes'
9 October 2023, 07:51 | Updated: 9 October 2023, 11:45
A British Airways plane had to be evacuated after unknown ‘fumes’ filled the cabin of the flight arriving from Barcelona.
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Emergency services rushed onto the plane at Terminal 5 with unwell passengers treated at the scene.
Firemen with breathing apparatus were filmed passing by scared passengers.
One passenger tweeted: “Nothing like being locked on a plane with a 'potential contagion' for an hour and half with no explanation or information.”
Another said: “Scenes at Heathrow T5 as the BA flight from Barcelona has had its crew fall sick upon landing, and the passengers are being held on the runway.
“No information other than smoke/fumes were detected in the cockpit and some cabin crew have been told to strip after falling ill.”
Scotland Yard said in a statement: “'Police were called at 16:15hrs on Sunday, 8 October to reports of passengers taken unwell on a flight into Heathrow Airport. Emergency services attended. Four people were treated at the scene.”
The London Ambulance Service said: “We sent a number of resources to the scene, including three medics in fast-response cars, two advanced paramedic practitioners, two ambulance crews, two incident response officers and members of our hazardous area response team (HART).
“After assessing multiple people at the scene, we treated three patients and discharged them.”
London Fire Brigade said a “chemical team did a sweep of the plane and found no elevated readings.”
British Airways said the aircraft 'landed normally' following reports of a technical issue.
A statement added: “Customers disembarked the aircraft safely via steps, and we've apologised to them for the delay and inconvenience caused to their journey.”
