A fully-boarded British Airways flight was cancelled shortly before takeoff after a 'distinctive smell' was detected.
According to The Sun, guests hoping to fly on a Boeing 777 flight from New York to London yesterday (14 June) were told they wouldn’t be able to take the transatlantic journey.
The shock cancellation was apparently the result of a strong smell giving crew headaches on the outbound journey from Heathrow Airport.
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Despite hundreds of passengers waiting at JFK airport, the service was terminated. BA staff were apparently then sent home.
A source told The Sun: "A distinctive smell was detected on the outbound flight from behind a canister. An area of the plane had to be monitored at 30,000ft.
"Police and the fire crew came onboard to investigate in New York but couldn’t detect any harmful fumes, just the odd smell.”
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The source told the publication that the flight back to Heathrow was a 'huge worry' because some of the crew had reacted poorly to the mysterious odour.
They claimed that staff had suffered from 'headaches, itchy eyes, and reported a metal taste in their mouth'.
It’s then said that despite the BA flight being full of customers, authorities decided to pull the plug as 'the plane was not safe to go'.
The unnamed source continued to say that passengers were 'rebooked on later flights' but that it was 'pandemonium' inside the New York airport, as nobody knew what had happened with the BA116 service.
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A team of BA engineers were then allegedly tasked with discovering the root of the foul smell, but the damage was already done.
“The knock-on effects are huge,” the source claimed. “Missed connections, aircraft and crews out of position, and a mystery, stinky airliner.”
A spokesperson for the airline said that safety is the company's priority.
They said in a statement shared with The Sun: “The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority and will never be compromised.
"We apologised to our customers for the inconvenience caused and offered an alternative flight or a full refund."
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LADbible has contacted British Airways for a comment.
According to the Independent, British Airways isn’t the only company to cancel flights recently.
A report stipulates that on Sunday (11 June), easyJet grounded more than 100 flights, which included flights to Cyprus and Antalya.
It’s alleged that 15,000 passengers who were due to fly from London Gatwick had their flights put on hold due to poor weather conditions and thunderstorms.
Featured Image Credit: Yau Ming Low / Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: US News, London, Travel