British Airways A380-800, with registration G-XLEK, was performing flight BA293 from London to Washington D.C. when the water started to pour from the upper deck into the lower deck. However, the aircraft continued for a safe landing in Washington while crew members tried to control the water flow.
The cabin crew rushed to get towels and blankets to soak up the water flowing along the stairs, aisle, and floor. Passengers were quickly moved to dry areas and the crew members kept trying to control the flow while some of them mopped the floors.
As seen in the video shared on the internet, the stairs of the plane leading from the First class cabin up to the Club World seats were also drenched by the water.
Despite all possible efforts from the cabin crew members, the water kept streaming from the water tank. Hundreds of litres of water streamed around the plane towards the end of the flight.
An airline spokesperson said that a faulty valve on the internal clean water supply tank led to this incident and the faulty valve was fixed by engineers on arrival in the US. BA also said that a diversion was not necessary as safety was not compromised.
“While there was no safety issue at any point, the area was quickly isolated and the flight continued as planned.”
British Airways spokesperson
A British Airways employee told The Sun that the flight was not a flight for “nervous flyers.” The BA employee also said,
“An inflight waterfall is not a regular feature at BA. It looked more like British Waterways than British Airways. The crew gave thanks the leak happened towards the end of the transAtlantic crossing.”
“There were a few people saying their Hail Mary’s, but staff were professional throughout.”
British Airways To Bring Back Entire A380 Fleet
British Airways brought five A380s back into service in early 2022, initially on shorter haul European routes for pilot training as the Airbus A380 return progresses.
Fast-forward, in a recent announcement, the Heathrow-based carrier confirmed that it will bring its entire A380 fleet back into service, with the airline planning to deploy its jumbo jets on a number of Key U.S. routes.
British Airways plans to operate as many as 495 Airbus A380 flights in August later this year, up 7% from August 2019 to accommodate the high travel demand being seen for the rest of 2022.
Feature Image via unconfirmed sources
That was odd no doubt. Happy everything was done to keep all passengers safe and happy
That has to be an aviation first! Never heard of such an incident.
The video says that this occurred by the stairs by First Class. But after close view of the video it looks like its to the rear of the aircraft as the stairs there are curved. Now that’s a lot of water I hope they get it dried out .
These stairs are at the back of the plane. The stairs in front do not curve.
The plane could develop corrosion and crash within 10 years.
Who knew there was that much fresh water on board!