Medical alert over 'fainting flight'
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Medical services were called to meet a plane landing at London Heathrow airport today after several passengers fainted during the flight.
Around six people fainted during the flight from Newark, USA, and London Ambulance Service was asked to meet the flight when it landed at Terminal Five at 6.50am.
It was not known what had caused the passengers to faint so the emergency services wore protective suits.
A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said it was being treated as a potential hazmat (hazardous materials) incident.
An ambulance service spokeswoman said its hazardous area response team was sent to meet the flight, along with six ambulance crews, two duty managers and three paramedics on bicycles who are based at the airport.
A British Airways spokeswoman said: "A handful of passengers on the aircraft fainted during the flight.
"As a precaution, medical services met the aircraft."
Six people were taken ill during the flight, out of 216 on board.
Their condition was initially assessed by airline staff and the flight, BA184, landed as planned at Heathrow Terminal Five.
The spokeswoman said the passengers had now been assessed and had been allowed to continue their journeys.
A Heathrow spokeswoman confirmed that medical services had been called to check the condition of passengers who had fainted on the flight.
"Passengers have been assessed and have disembarked," she said.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force had been alerted to the incident and had attended the airport, but it was not being treated as suspicious.
An ambulance service spokeswoman said: "We were called just before 6.10am this morning to Terminal Five to reports of multiple patients taken unwell on a plane.
"We had six ambulance crews, three of our paramedics on bicycles who went down there and two duty managers as well as our hazardous area response team (Hart).
"Our staff boarded just after 9.15am once the scene had been checked by London Fire Brigade.
"We have assessed six patients at the scene. None needed to be taken to hospital."
She said ambulance staff finished at the scene at 10.10am.
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