LONDON- British Airways (BA) has opened an urgent investigation after all three pilots operating a long haul service from Hyderabad (HYD) to London Heathrow (LHR) suffered suspected food poisoning during the flight.
A first officer was “incapacitated” at 30,000 feet and had to be put on oxygen, while the remaining two pilots continued working the Boeing 777 through the rest of the 10 and a half hour sector into London Heathrow.
British Airways Pilot Fell Sick
The 3 pilots had operated out of Hyderabad following a scheduled layover in the southern Indian city. The first officer became unable to perform duties in the cruise and required oxygen.
The other two pilots managed to continue working and completed the sector to London. Their symptoms worsened after the aircraft landed in Britain, indicating that all three had been exposed to the same source.
British Airways insisted that flight safety was not compromised. A source told The Sun: “An urgent investigation has been launched as this must not happen again.”
The incident drew immediate comparison with the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, in which an entire flight crew falls ill after eating a contaminated fish dinner, leaving a former pilot among the passengers to land the aircraft.
The parallel is limited to the cause rather than the outcome. In the British Airways case, the aircraft was flown to its scheduled destination by qualified pilots throughout.
Suspected Source Traced to Crew Hotel
Attention has focused on the hotel used for crew rest in Hyderabad. The pilots had shared breakfast and drinks in the hotel lounge, and all 3 drank bottled water provided by an external company.
The shared meal and the shared water supply are the common factors now under examination. Because all 3 crew members ate and drank together, investigators have a narrow set of possibilities to test rather than a broad range of sources.
Earlier Hygiene Complaints
The property costs around £130 a night. Insiders at the pilots’ union BALPA said officials are furious because there had been “dozens” of previous complaints about hygiene at the hotel.
Those earlier complaints are expected to carry weight in the review, because they establish a pattern rather than a single isolated event.
Airlines audit contracted layover hotels for hygiene and food safety, and a record of repeated complaints normally forces a reassessment or a change of provider.
Air Safety Reports and Medical Testing
All 3 pilots filed Air Safety Reports after the flight. These reports form part of the airline’s mandatory occurrence reporting system and trigger a documented internal review.
The pilots were also asked to provide samples so that doctors could try to pinpoint the source of the illness. Laboratory analysis can separate bacterial contamination from viral infection and other causes, which helps establish whether food, water, or handling practices were responsible.
Pilot incapacitation is a recognised category of in-flight emergency, and crews train for scenarios in which a colleague becomes unable to perform duties.
The risk rises sharply when more than one pilot is affected by the same cause, which is why some airlines advise pilots operating together to avoid eating identical meals.
British Airways Reviews Its Hyderabad Options
The airline told The Sun it is now assessing its hotel options in Hyderabad. British Airways said: “The welfare of our colleagues is a top priority and we are reviewing crew accommodation in this location following some isolated reports of sickness.”
The airline has not identified the source of the suspected food poisoning. The outcome of the medical testing is expected to shape whether the current hotel remains in use.
Separate Incident
In an unrelated case, a video has gone viral of a Spanish pilot on an unidentified flight appearing to fool Argentinian passengers into believing they had won the World Cup.
As the passengers celebrated, the pilot silenced them by announcing over the tannoy that Spain had won.
Argentine media criticised the stunt as a “questionable sense of humour”. The video has no connection to the British Airways investigation.
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