An American Airlines flight from London Heathrow Airport to LAX on Wednesday was turned around after around seven crew members and “several passengers” were hit by a mysterious illness.
American Airlines Flight AA109 was reportedly close to Keflavik in southwest Iceland when the panic began. As people began to fall ill, passengers were asked if there was a doctor on board. Soon afterwards, passengers reportedly started to panic as more people fell ill with the mysterious ailment.
Mystery illness forces American Airlines flight to return to London https://t.co/4Y7UliJFWy pic.twitter.com/X8CIXF8fft
— Mashable (@mashable) January 28, 2016
There were reports of passengers shocked to see flight attendants collapse in the aisles, which sparked fear there may be contamination in the air conditioning on the plane.
One passenger on the flight, Lee Gunn, described the experience to the Mirror Online, saying it was around two and a half hours into the flight, just as the plane was passing Iceland, that a Tannoy announcement was heard, asking for any doctors, nurses or medical professionals on board to head to the boarding doors to help unwell passengers.
Gunn said the lights then came on in the cabin and “there was lots of commotion.”
While the illness is unknown at this time, Gunn tweeted that passengers appeared to be “suffering with equilibrium.”
https://twitter.com/gunn_lee/status/692357061875781632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Independent quotes another passenger, Alan Gray as saying: “One of the flight attendants was walking down the aisle when she collapsed. Then up to six other cabin crew members said they felt light-headed and as though they were going to faint.”