UK-bound flight fills with smoke in mid-air as pilot forced into emergency alert (2025)

A British Airways flight from Washington DC to London was forced to divert and land in Boston, less than two hours into the flight, after a possible 'bird strike' with fumes in the cabin

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A British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing after smoke started pouring into the cabin. The Boeing 777 was scheduled to fly from Washington DC to London, but it was made to land in Boston after a possible bird strike.

British Airways Flight 216 took off at 5:36pm local time from the US capital's Dulles International Airport on Saturday, but was promptly diverted to Boston Logan International Airport less than two hours later, at 7:30pm. Crew onboard the aircraft desperately reported "a possible bird strike and fumes in the cabin", the Federal Aviation Administration told CBS News.

The Massachusetts Port Authority confirmed to the network that a "bird was struck" and the FFA confirmed all passengers and crew landed safely in Boston, and said it would investigate the terrifying incident.

The flight from Boston to London departed at 8:40pm local time and arrived in London at 6:15am on Sunday morning. British Airways said in a statement that engineers would conduct a "thorough inspection of the aircraft".

The airline told The Mirror in a statement: "The flight landed safely after diverting to Boston as a precaution following a suspected bird strike. We are sorry for the delay to our customers’ travel plans, but the safety of our customers and crew is always our priority."

It was not immediately clear how many passengers and crew were onboard the flight but there were no reports of any injuries. It was also unclear whether any damage wad caused to the Boeing 777 aircraft.

Bird strikes are a fairly common occurrence in the skies as there were 19,400 of these strikes reported from 713 US airports in 2023 alone, according to the FAA. A staggering 292,000 animal strikes have been reported in the US between 1990 and 2023, according to the FAA.

These can become dangerous, however, if a birds fly into the engine of a plane. A US military C-37 plane was forced to make an emergency landing after it blew into birds during take-off, The Mirror has previously reported.

The jet took off from Chicago Midway International Airport and flew into the flock, back in 2022.

The carcass of a large bird was later found on the airport's runway but none of the passengers were injured.

These issues have also happened outside of the US for example, an easyJet flight bound for Malaga was forced to divert to Gatwick due to a bird strike, in October 2024. The Airbus A320 had initially taken off from Southend Airport, in Essex.

The aircraft was met with fire engines when it landed but it was only on the ground for a few minutes before the issue was resolved and it was allowed to continue with its journey onto Spain.

A spokesperson for easyJet told The Mirror: "The pilot took this decision in line with our procedures and performed a routine landing. Emergency services attended the aircraft on arrival as a precaution measure only."