British Airways flight declares emergency en route to Glasgow after onboard incident
The pilots requested a ‘priority landing’ in Glasgow after the medical emergency onboard
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A flight bound for Glasgow declared an emergency minutes before landing in the Scottish city after an onboard incident.
Flight BA8722 left London City Airport at 1.30 pm on Monday (21 October) bound for Glasgow Airport for the once-a-day one-hour flight.
However, just before landing, the Embraer ERJ-190, a 100-passenger aircraft used for short-haul flights, pilots requested a priority landing as a precaution after a medical incident onboard.
The flight sent out a 7700 transponder signal, a universal squawk code indicating a general emergency onboard which prioritises their landing, Travel and Tour World reported.
The signal was sent out while approaching Glasgow with the crew alerting air traffic control and communicating with authorities as the aircraft carried on with its approach.
Emergency services were dispatched to Glasgow Airport before the aircraft came into landing, the outlet said.
British Airways told The Independent that there was a medical emergency on board involving an elderly passenger.
They added that the aircraft landed normally and touched down in Glasgow at 2.10pm, 10 minutes before its estimated time of arrival.
One passenger wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the incident that the crew aboard the plane were “true professionals” throughout.
“Kudos to team on BA8722 today for their calm, kindness and discretion in dealing with a medical emergency today,” she wrote.
Earlier this month, a Turkish Airlines pilot died while flying a passenger plane from the US to Turkey, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in New York.
İlçehin Pehlivan, 59-year-old captain on the plane, fainted during the flight from Seattle, Washington, to Istanbul, which reportedly took off at around 7pm on Tuesday.
The crew staged a medical intervention but it was “ineffective”, Turkish Airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun wrote on X.
The flight’s co-pilot made an emergency landing in New York – but the captain lost his life before the plane landed.
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