Nearly 200 people had to be evacuated from a British Airways flight after smoke poured into the cabin minutes before it was due to land in Valencia.
Three people were taken to hospital after the incident on Monday, and each was later discharged.
One passenger on the flight from London’s Heathrow airport tweeted videos that appeared to show the smoke-filled cabin and claimed that a fire had broken out. The passenger, a Spanish sports journalist called Dani Meroño Bori, said he and others had been forced to leave the plane using the emergency slides.
Intentamos salir pero no funciona nada!!! atrapados pero van a abrir la puerta!!!Hemos aterrizado en Manises @British_Airways pic.twitter.com/917WOKL4yO
— Dani Meroño Bori (@Dani_Merono) August 5, 2019
“PANIC!!! FEAR – have never been through anything like that before,” he tweeted. “What a miracle. The plane we were on from London to Valencia caught fire. We’ve just landed.”
In a later tweet, he said: “We’re trying to get out but nothing’s working!!! We’re trapped but they’re going to open the door!!! We’ve landed in Manises aiport [in Valencia].”
After he got off the plane, Meroño tweeted: “Everyone’s OK but there were people who had a really rough time. It was a big shock when smoke started to appear when we were flying. Luckily we were close and everything turned out OK. We took a deep breath when we landed.”
The journalist complained about a lack of information from staff and said some passengers had been left to reassure others.
Gayle Fitzpatrick, from Glasgow, Scotland, who was on holiday with her husband, Stephen, described the moment smoke entered the cabin.
She told PA Media: “It was very scary. The flight was just ending, and with 10 minutes to go, it started descending rapidly as smoke started to fill the cabin.
“A detector was going off saying the cabin was filling with smoke … There were no communications from the crew, who started to wear full oxygen masks and protective fire wear.
“Eventually they managed to open the emergency doors and told us to go down the chutes. There were fire engines waiting and then we were all ushered into a bus to the airport.”
Fitzpatrick claimed passengers had been stuck at the airport for hours “without any information at all”.
Stephen Fitzpatrick added: “The pilot made a very sharp downward trajectory , landed the thing, pulled into a sideway and stopped quite suddenly.
“We could see the fire engines scrambling, but were surprised they weren’t already there given the warning time. There was zero communication at any time from the crew.”
Once the passengers were clear of the aircraft, Fitzpatrick said it was up to them to organise themselves and they spent nearly five hours in the baggage area.
“There was some very basic presence from the airport, but essentially the passengers were left entirely to their own devices.”
He said he was “surprised at how utterly unprepared they were for an emergency”, calling it a “real eye-opener”.
In a statement, British Airways said: “Flight BA422 from Heathrow to Valencia experienced a technical issue on its landing approach into Valencia. All our customers were evacuated safely by our crew and met by the airport’s emergency services.
“There were 175 customers on board the flight, with six cabin crew and two pilots. Three customers were taken to hospital as a precaution and have since been discharged.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority. In addition to our team on site, other British Airways team members have arrived in Valencia to help our customers and our local airport partners with anything they need.”
