The plane had arrived in London from Barcelona, Spain.
An emergency service operation was conducted at Heathrow Airport on October 8 in response to allegations of people feeling ill as a result of “fumes” found on a British Airways plane, as per a report in the Independent. The Metropolitan Police stated that the plane had arrived in London from Barcelona, Spain, around 4:15 pm. Pictures and videos posted on social media by travellers show personnel wearing white hazmat suits outside the plane as ambulances and firefighters rushed to the site.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson told the outlet that they sent several resources to the location which included “three medics in fast-response cars, two advanced paramedics, two ambulance crews, two incident response officers and members of the hazardous area response team.” They added, “After assessing multiple people at the scene, we treated three patients and discharged them.”
London Fire Bridge also stated that there were no unusual levels of chemical substances found in the plane. “Crews used specialist equipment to carry out a systematic sweep of the aircraft to check for elevated readings of chemical substances. No elevated readings were found.”
One of the passengers, Martin Hill, took to X, formerly Twitter, and said, “Nothing like being locked on a plane with a ‘potential contagion’ for an hour and half with no explanation or information.” In another post, two hours later, he added, “For clarity there was no contagion in the end. At least I hope not since they finally let us go. @metpoliceuk seems to be on the ball. Heathrow staff tho, were increasingly unclear and hostile to what amounted to very confused terrified folks that just wanted to go home.”
Nothing like being locked on a plane with a ‘potential contagion’ for an hour and half with no explanation or information. @britishairways@HeathrowAirportpic.twitter.com/xw8YzfEOUF
— Martin Hill (@MartinHill25) October 8, 2023
Another passenger on the plane, James Cheadle, added, “No information other than smoke/fumes were detected in the cockpit and some cabin crew have been told to strip after falling ill.” Mr Cheadle informed that passengers were “herded into some departure gates.”
A British Airways spokesperson told the outlet that the “aircraft landed normally at Heathrow following reports of a technical issue”.”Customers disembarked the aircraft safely via steps, and we’ve apologised to them for the delay and inconvenience caused to their journey,” the spokesperson said, adding that the safety of their passengers was the top-most priority.