British Airways plane forced to make emergency landing as smoke pours into cabin less than 2 hours into flight
A BRITISH Airways plane was forced to make an emergency landing less than two hours into the flight as smoke poured into the cabin.
The Boeing 777 had departed Dulles International Airport and was bound for Heathrow Airport on Saturday.
However, it was made to land in Boston after a possible bird strike less than two hours later, at 7:30pm local time.
Crew onboard the aircraft desperately reported “a possible bird strike and fumes in the cabin”, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A spokesperson for British Airways said the flight was diverted to Boston “as a precaution following a suspected bird strike”.
The BA statement added that engineers were inspecting the aircraft following the chaos.
The airline said: “The flight landed safely after diverting to Boston as a precaution following a suspected bird strike.
“We are sorry for the delay to our customers’ travel plans, but the safety of our customers and crew is always our priority.”
It was not immediately clear how many passengers and crew were onboard the flight but there were no reports of any injuries.
However, the FFA said that passengers and crew landed safely in Boston, and said it would investigate the terrifying incident.
It was also unclear whether any damage was caused to the Boeing 777 aircraft.
The Massachusetts Port Authority also confirmed to CBS News that a “bird was struck”.
Bird strikes are a fairly common occurrence in the skies as there were 19,400 of these strikes reported from 713 US airports in 2023 alone, according to the FAA.
A staggering 292,000 animal strikes have been reported in the US between 1990 and 2023, according to the FAA.
But these can become dangerous if a birds fly into the engine of a plane.
About 61 percent of bird strikes occur when a flight is descending or ascending.
However, only three percent of strikes occur when the plane is en route.