It is commonly known that some people do not cope well when flying. But fainting is something rather different from feeling airsick – and when it happens to a number of passengers there is clearly something wrong.
But this situation did occur recently – in the early hours of Halloween – as a plane landed at Heathrow Airport. Not long beforehand several of the passengers had started to feel ill, so when the plane landed at the airport there were medical personnel waiting to board it.
To date it does not appear clear what caused the problem. It was speculated that perhaps a bug of some kind could have affected the passengers. Other theories included chemical fumes, but no solution was found to solve the mystery.
Luckily all the passengers who were affected by the same symptoms were found to be fine and did not require any medical or hospital treatment. Heathrow, in common with other airports, has medical facilities on site so as soon as the passengers were taken from the plane they were moved to this area. Fortunately they were allowed to continue on and complete their journeys, since none of them were affected for very long and recovered well.
Furthermore there were no suspicious circumstances revolving around the incident. This is good news, although as we mentioned above it is still not clear what the cause of the problem was. Could it have been a bug of some kind? If it was, it certainly resolved itself very quickly. But if it had been fumes surely more people would have been affected, including perhaps some of the actual cabin crew?
Whatever the story might be, the good news is that everyone got off the plane and was able to carry on to their destination. Medical staff members were at the airport for around three and a half hours, and initially the only staff members allowed to board the plane wore protective suits. At this stage it was unclear as to whether chemicals or some other harmful substance was evident, so every precaution was taken. You can read more about the incident and what happened on the Telegraph website.
Needless to say the affected passengers were no doubt glad to be able to complete their journey with no further drama. But it is good to know that the right steps were taken and the right people were on the scene and ready to act as soon as the plane landed.