American Airlines flight AA109 turns back to Heathrow after 'crew and passengers struck down by mystery illness'

The scene at Heathrow as the plane landed
Lee Gunn
Mark Chandler28 January 2016

A flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles was forced to turn back today after passengers and members of the cabin crew became mysteriously ill.

Shocked travellers claimed a flight attendant fainted during the American Airlines journey, which was close to Keflavik, Iceland, when it was sent back this afternoon.

Passenger Lee Gunn told Mirror Online: "About 2.5 hours into the flight, just as we were passing Iceland, we had a tannoy announcement asking for any doctors, nurses or medical professionals on board to report to the boarding doors to assist with unwell passengers.

"The lights then came on in the cabin and there was lots of commotion.

"I'm a bit of a plane geek myself so thought 'here we go, Reykjavik here we come' but it was announced about 20 minutes after we were going to divert back to LHR."

Mr Gunn claimed that several members of the crew, as well as passengers, were affected.

The Boeing flight AA109 was met by police cars, ambulances and fire crews when it reached Heathrow at about 5pm today.

A spokesman for American Airlines confirmed the plane had turned around after a medical emergency and that it was not security-related.

They said: “We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience to their travel plans.”

The London Ambulance Service tweeted: "We have attended an incident at #HeathrowAirport today. We checked over six patients who were feeling unwell. They were discharged on scene."

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