British Airways has launched an investigation into how a pallet of rotting fruit sparked a mid-air drama over the Atlantic yesterday forcing a packed Jumbo Jet to make an emergency landing at Shannon amid fears that a fire had broken out in the jet's cargo hold.
British Airways flight 206, which was carrying more than 300 passengers from Miami, Florida, to London Heathrow, was grounded for almost three hours at Shannon, as fire crews waited for fumes to clear from the cargo area.
The pilot reported that a fire indicator light had illuminated shortly after 4 a.m. when the jet was approximately three hundred miles west of Shannon.
According to airport sources, "we have a lot of false alarms here and we take them all seriously but the captain of this flight was convinced there was a fire in the cargo hold and so the incident was treated with extreme seriousness". As the jet touched down shortly after 5 a.m., crash tenders pursed the aircraft and escorted it to a stand at the far end of the terminal building.
As airport emergency vehicles surrounded the plane, six units of the fire brigade from Ennis and Shannon and a fleet of ambulances rushed to the aircraft.
Passengers watched as fire crews sprayed the underbelly of the aircraft with water in an effort to determine if there was a fire. When they were confident it was safe fire personnel entered the cargo hold using thermal imaging cameras to confirm there was not fire.
According to Aer Rianta, "a closer examination found that rotting fruit was giving off unusual fumes and caused the alert".