Press Association
Thursday 24th May 2012
An inquiry is under way into an incident in which a British Airways' plane with more than 100 passengers on board had to return to Heathrow Airport after both pilots felt light-headed.
The cockpit crew of the Glasgow-bound Airbus A321 flight donned oxygen masks and decided to turn back to Heathrow where the plane landed safely. The incident happened on December 20 and involved BA 1486.
It was described on a pilots' website by someone who said they were on board the flight.
The passenger said: "At approx 20 mins into flight a very abrupt and panicked message came over the PA from the pilot 'senior flight attendant to the flightdeck'."
The passenger then said that all the flight attendants had "worried faces" and that "next thing we were heading back to LHR (London Heathrow) at great speed".
The passenger went on: "No announcement for a long time then the expected technical problem line was posted to all. We landed no problem but were met by a full fire service turnout, including local authority fire service and engineers etc etc."
A BA spokeswoman said on Monday that the aircraft had been thoroughly inspected and no fault was found, with the plane going back into service the next day. She added: "During a journey from Heathrow to Glasgow, flight crew reported feeling light-headed so, as a precaution and following normal procedure, put on oxygen masks.
"Our flight crew are highly trained to deal with such circumstances. The aircraft returned to Heathrow, landed safely and customers continued their journey on a replacement aircraft after a short delay.
"We apologise to customers for the inconvenience but their safety is always our highest priority."