MAYDAY

Boeing Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Smoke Fills Cockpit

The British Airways flight was forced to turn around after pilots issued a distress signal shortly after takeoff.

A British Airways flight heading to Singapore was forced to make an emergency landing at Sydney Airport on Monday. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner issued the highest possible distress signal a pilot can give after reporting smoke in the cockpit around an hour after takeoff, prompting it to turn around. “We heard the captain say we need a senior crew member to come to the cockpit now, and then we started thinking there’s something wrong,” passenger Mandy Ramson told 7News. Around 10 minutes later, the crew announced that they were turning around because “they smelled fuel in the cockpit. It was really, really scary,” she added. The cause of the smoke has not yet been determined, but the aircraft landed safely with no injuries. An investigation into the incident is now underway. “The flight landed safely with crew and customers disembarking as they normally would, and our teams are working hard to get their journeys back on track as soon as possible,” an airline spokesperson said.