A British Airways flight bound for London was forced to make an dramatic emergency landing in Romania as four people on board were suffering from “smoke inhalation”.
22:26, 09 Oct 2025Updated 22:26, 09 Oct 2025
The plane was diverted off course as passengers ‘inhaled smoke'(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A British Airways flight has had to make an emergency landing in Romania with four passengers suffering from “smoke inhalation”.
The Airbus A320, carrying 142 passengers, was on its way from Istanbul to London when it had to make the diversion this afternoon.
Flight BA603 made a request to land at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport at 5.50pm local time, touching down at 6.14pm. The four people who had fallen ill were quickly seen to by medical staff who boarded the plane.
Romania’s Ministry of Health later said in a statement that immediately after the plane landed, “the presence of smoke was confirmed,” and everyone on board was evacuated.
“Four people are in poor health, possibly being smoke-intoxicated, and are receiving medical assistance on site,” the ministry said, but later added that “they did not require medical care.”
The flight was bound for London from Istanbul(Image: Flightradar24)
The four are believed to have been attendants who were part of the flight crew.
In a statement, British Airways said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority, and our crew made the decision to divert as a precaution due to a suspected technical issue.
“The aircraft landed safely and customers disembarked as normal. We’re sorry to our customers for the disruption to their journeys and our teams are working to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.”
Despite the four people falling ill with suspected smoke inhalation, British Airways have refuted claims that smoke had entered the cabin.
They said: “We received no reports of smoke on board or hospitalisations.”
The airline’s flight status page showed Flight BA603 as having been diverted, with the message: “We’re very sorry, this flight scheduled from Istanbul to London, has been diverted to Bucharest.” No further details were provided.
British Airways are denying that there was smoke in the cabin(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Airport authorities have launched an investigation to determine the source of the smoke and assess whether flight safety was affected.
This comes after the news that a Ryanair flight was forced to make an emergency landing after coming within six minutes of “running out of fuel.
The flight, travelling from the Italian city of Pisa to Prestwick Airport in Glasgow on October 3, issued a “fuel Mayday”. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Manchester after the cockpit crew issued a 7700 squark code – the signal for a general emergency.
Upon landing, the aircraft only had 220kg of fuel remaining in its tank – just enough for five or six minutes of flight, reports the Express.
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