British Airways flight diverted to Bucharest where Romanian authorities reported smoke on board

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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A British Airways flight en route from Istanbul to London was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday in Romania’s capital after four people on board reportedly suffered possible smoke inhalation, but required no medical care after all passengers were evacuated, authorities said.

The pilots of the Airbus A320, which was carrying 142 passengers, requested an emergency landing at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport at 5:50 p.m. local time (1420 GMT) and landed at 6:14 p.m. (1514 GMT), the airport said. An emergency response team, including a medical crew, then boarded the plane.

Romania’s Ministry of Health later said in a statement that immediately after the plane landed, “the presence of smoke was confirmed,” and everyone on board was evacuated.

“Four people are in poor health, possibly being smoke-intoxicated, and are receiving medical assistance on site,” the ministry said, but later added that “they did not require medical care.”

British Airways said in a statement to The Associated Press that “the safety of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority and our crew made the decision to divert as a precaution due to a suspected technical issue.”

“The aircraft landed safely and customers disembarked as normal,” a spokesperson said. “We’re sorry to our customers for the disruption to their journeys and our teams are working to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.”

The airline's flight status page showed Flight BA603 as having been diverted, with the message: “We’re very sorry, this flight scheduled from Istanbul to London, has been diverted to Bucharest.” No further details were provided.