BA flight forced into emergency landing after smoke alert in cockpit
A British Airways pilot made an emergency landing at Heathrow after the crew smelled smoke in the cockpit.
The Airbus A319,with 121 passengers, was only 10 minutes into its flight to Zurich yesterday when the pilot announced that fumes had been detected coming from an air conditioning unit.
The captain of the flight decided to return to Heathrow as a precautionary measure.
Smoke alarm: A BA Airbus A319 was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow after smoke was detected in the cockpit
A passenger said the plane banked sharply and landed within minutes.
Passengers were transferred to a replacement flight for their journey, and engineers were examining the plane to find out why the crew could smell smoke.
No fire was detected. BA said it was investigating.
The incident follows an emergency landing by another British holiday jet late last month.
Passengers on the Thomsonfly flight to Gatwick screamed in panic as black smoke filled the cabin shortly after the plane took off from Pula in western Croatia.
In the same week, passengers on a Ryanair plane feared they were about to die after it plummeted 26,000ft following a sudden drop in cabin pressure.
The aircraft levelled out at around 8,000ft before making an emergency landing in central France.
