Heathrow Airport: ‘Terrified’ passengers evacuated off British Airways plane after ‘unknown fumes’ fill aircraft

“Terrified” passengers were taken off a British Airways plane on Sunday (8 October) after “fumes” filled the flight. Emergency services rushed to Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport after the plane, coming from Barcelona, landed at around 4:15pm.

According to reports, four travellers had fallen ill on the flight from the unknown “fumes” and were “told to strip” after they became unwell. Passengers posted pictures and videos of the scene on social media which showed a number of fire engines and police cars on the runway. Other images showed firemen entering the plane wearing breathing apparatus.

One passenger posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that the crew were “locked” on the plane “for an hour and half with no explanation or information.” Martin Hill tweeted: “Nothing like being locked on a plane with a ‘potential contagion’ for an hour and half with no explanation or information. 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.”

Another passenger posted on X: “Scenes at Heathrow T5 as the BA flight from Barcelona has had its crew fall sick upon landing, and the passengers are being held on the runway. No information other than smoke/fumes were detected in the cockpit and some cabin crew have been told to strip after falling ill.”

The London Fire Brigade said that no elevated chemical readings were detected inside the aircraft, while the London Ambulance Service said it had sent a hazardous area response team along with three medics.

The London Ambulance Service said: “’We sent a number of resources to the scene, including three medics in fast-response cars, two advanced paramedic practitioners, two ambulance crews, two incident response officers and members of our hazardous area response team (HART). After assessing multiple people at the scene, we treated three patients and discharged them.”

The Metropolitan Police told the Mirror: “Police were called to reports of passengers taken unwell on a flight into Heathrow Airport. Emergency services attended. Four people were treated at the scene.”

In a statement, British Airways said the safety of its customers and crew “is always our top priority’ and the aircraft “landed normally” after reports of a technical issue.

NationalWorld has contacted Heathrow Airport for comment.