Four passengers suffered from “smoke inhalation” on a British Airways flight travelling from Instanbul to London forcing the aircraft to be diverted to Romania
A British Airways flight has had to make an emergency landing with four passengers suffering from “smoke inhalation”.
The Airbus A320 was on its way from Istanbul to London when it had to make the diversion this afternoon. The BA603 flight, carrying 142 passengers, requested the landing at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport at 5.50pm local time. It touched down soon after at 6.14pm and medical crews quickly boarded the plane to attend to the four that had fallen ill.
Romania’s Ministry of Health later said in a statement that immediately after the plane landed, “the presence of smoke was confirmed,” and everyone on board was evacuated.
“Four people are in poor health, possibly being smoke-intoxicated, and are receiving medical assistance on site,” the ministry said, but later added that “they did not require medical care.”
British Airways said in a statement that “the safety of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority and our crew made the decision to divert as a precaution due to a suspected technical issue.”
“The aircraft landed safely and customers disembarked as normal,” a spokesperson said. “We’re sorry to our customers for the disruption to their journeys and our teams are working to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.”
The airline also said of the claim that there had been smoke on board: “We received no reports of smoke on board or hospitalisations.” The airline’s flight status page showed Flight BA603 as having been diverted, with the message: “We’re very sorry, this flight scheduled from Istanbul to London, has been diverted to Bucharest.” No further details were provided.
Meanwhile, a United Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing after smoke reportedly filled the cabin mid-flight. Emergency services scrambled to Heathrow Airport after flight UA949 ditched its flight to San Francisco and returned to London’s Heathrow Airport on July 30. Police cars and an ambulance were pictured on the runway.
The United Airlines flight took off from the London airport at 12:23pm and the plane was heading to San Francisco when flight tracking data showed it turn back near Milton Keynes.
The Boeing 777-200 appears to have stopped climbing at 15,000ft before returning. United Airlines told Air Live the maintenance team needs to evaluate a technical issue on the plane before a new departure. The plane was escorted to the gate by three fire trucks.