A TRANSATLANTIC flight has been forced to divert to Shannon Airport after the crew reported smoke on board.
British Airways flight BA-213 departed London Heathrow for Boston at 11.15am this morning, but the plane was forced to divert about an hour into its journey when the crew alerted air traffic controllers to the issue.
The Boeing 777-200 jet's flight crew reported that smoke had been detected on board and requested permission to divert to Shannon.
The flight landed safely at 1.37pm and was met on the runway by airport fire and rescue crews, who carried out a visual inspection for evidence of fire or smoke.
Once it was confirmed there were no obvious sign of fire, the plane continued to the terminal building where engineers were on stand-by to investigate the problem.
In a statement, British Airways apologised to passengers for the diversion – caused by a minor technical fault.
A spokeswoman said: “The aircraft landed normally after our highly-trained pilots diverted the flight as a precaution.
"We have arranged for a replacement aircraft to fly to Shannon this afternoon to make sure all our customers can get to Boston as soon as possible.
"We have apologised to our customers for the delay to their journey.”
