Cabin crew on a British Airways transatlantic passenger jet had to use up to 5 fire extinguishers as well as several fire blankets to put out a ‘serious’ electrical fire which was sparked by the plane’s in-flight entertainment system. There were 275 passengers on board the North Atlantic when the drama happened, with the Boeing 747 Jumbo cruising 30,000ft en route from Dallas, Texas to Heathrow. The electrical blaze sparked in the cabin service’s director’s small office – located under the stairs in the lower level of the jet – when the in-flight entertainment system ignited.

An alarm was triggered along with other warning systems. Upon hearing this, the cabin crew grabbed extinguishers and fire blankets to tackle the blaze which was brought under control within a period of about 5 minutes. The drama was classified as a ‘serious incident’ in the official MOR (Mandatory Occurrence Report) submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority by BA. The report says that the incident is subject to an investigation by the Air Accident Investigation Branch.  The fire erupted during an 8½ hour flight on board flight BA 192 on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Dallas. The Flight left Dallas on 13^th October at 4.45pm and due to arrive in London the next day at 7.25am.

A BA spokesman stated, “Ultimately, this was a small fire which was brought under control very quickly by crew, and should it had been required there was a range of fire fighting equipment remaining. The flight continued as normal throughout.”

Earlier this month frightened passengers on board the British Airways flight told how they heard the pilot on 14^th November make a Mayday distress call 36,000ft above the Atlantic. The Boeing 777 ‘London to New York’ had to make an emergency landing in Ireland’s Shannon Airport, after the cockpit filled with smoke, due to an electrical fault. Another Boeing 777 just 5 days earlier had to make an emergency landing at Shannon, just an hour crossing the Atlantic on the same route.

Again the cause was a burning smell in the cabin - which is understood to have been caused by a faulty oven. The Aviation Herald warned that electrical burning was what killed all 229 people on board a Swissair flight over the Atlantic in 1998. In that case, a fire is thought to have begun in the cockpit and spread to equipment before it could be brought under control.