A British Airways flight en route from the UK to Greece was forced to make an emergency landing in Switzerland after one of its pilots fainted in the cockpit.
Even before he fainted, the co-pilot on the flight, which departed from London for Athens, complained that he was not feeling well, which forced the captain to turn the plane back to Heathrow Airport. While the co-pilot said he was not feeling well, according to a source who spoke to the British “Daily Mail”, the flight captain decided not to continue to the Greek capital, but to return to the kingdom to allow a new and fresh flight crew to board the plane. “If he had continued to Athens, he could not have made the flight back because he was not a co-pilot with him,” the source said. Eventually, as mentioned, the plane landed in Zurich.
After the deteriorating condition of the co-pilot, the captain made the dramatic landing in Zurich so that his friend could be quickly transferred to a local hospital. After undergoing hospital treatment, he was released. Due to the unexpected landing, the plane waited at Zurich airport for more than five hours the morning after Christmas, until it departed for the final destination it was supposed to reach.
Since last year, more than 300 cases have been reported in which toxic fumes were released in the cockpits of British airline pilots, with some of its pilots even reporting that they were not feeling well. Many reported smelling a “cheesy odor” that made them vomit or faint. It is estimated that this is a leak from the engine seals, a problem that is known to occur more in Boeing aircraft than in Airbus A320 aircraft, the type of aircraft in which the incident took place last weekend.