A British Airways flight that arrived in London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) from Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN) was quickly evacuated after “unknown fumes” filled the cabin.
Flight BA 475 arrived at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on October 8, 2023 at around 16:15 local time, and was met by emergency services on the tarmac.
Video footage of the incident taken by one of the passengers showed a number of fire engines and police cars on the runway as passengers waited outside the plane.
In his post, a passenger initially described the situation as being locked on a plane with a ‘potential contagion’, but later clarified that there was no contagion at all.
One other passenger posted a tweet with photos saying there was no other information provided other than fumes were detected in the cockpit and some cabin crew have been told to strip after falling ill.
Another passenger who was on the flight posted a video of the evacuation, saying that there was a “suspected chemical leak” on the flight.
The London Fire Brigade told the Daily Mail that there were no elevated chemical readings detected inside the aircraft, while the London Ambulance Service said it had sent a hazardous area response team along with three medics.
Terminal 4 evacuated
In a separate but more recent incident, London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 was temporarily evacuated on the morning of October 9, 2023 after a man pressed emergency alarms.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told local media outlet MyLondon that the disruption was due to an unruly passenger causing a disturbance on a train on its way to Heathrow.
The rail passenger then activated manual call alarms at the Elizabeth line station at Heathrow. The terminal and station have since reopened and the passenger has been arrested.