Passengers on a British Airways A380 traveling across the Atlantic Ocean encountered an unexpected shower onboard after water began pouring from the ceiling of the lower deck.
British Airways A380 Flooding During Transatlantic Crossing
The incident occurred on BA293 from London (LHR) to Washington DC (IAD) on June 11, 2022 onboard an A380-800 (registration number G-XLEK) about seven hours into the flight.
Pictures and video show water rapidly falling from the upper deck or ceiling which separates the two levels. Water can be seen falling from an area adjacent to an emergency exit door and also rushing down the rear staircase separating the upper and lower level economy class cabins.
British Airways A380 cabin fills with water from the upper deck during a flight between Heathrow to Washington DC. The aircraft continued for a safe landing in Washington. https://t.co/Kx7E0JlCX5 pic.twitter.com/UOv7LOflsC
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) June 14, 2022
Passengers in impacted areas were quickly moved to other parts of the aircraft and the crew tried, in vain, to mop up the mess as the plane approached Washington, DC.
British Airways later identified the problem as faulty valve regulating the potable drinking water tank onboard. It insisted there was never a safety issue at any point.
“There was no safety issue at any point, this was from the clean drinking water supply. The flight continued safely to Washington and landed as normal. A faulty valve was replaced and the issue fixed.”
The plane later returned to London, so the problem must have been resolved.
A British Airways employee told The UK Sun:
“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 Waterways…
CONCLUSION
This reminds me of the “shower” on my Lufthansa A380.
I cannot imagine it was comforting to suddenly see water flowing from the ceiling of your aircraft at 30,000 feet, though it appears British Airways handled it as professionally as possible. Whatever the cause, hopefully it will not happen again.
Perhaps it’s a good thing Noah’s Ark was not a British Airways A380!
> Read More: An Onboard Shower…In Lufthansa A380 Economy Class
Cruise lines handle it well. Full refund plus voucher for next cruise.
Airlines are too used to getting bailouts from corrupt politicians like America’s grandma.
I’d avoid A380s in Coach for this reason, on the lower deck. Will happily fly Biz up above!
BA A380 F is in the front lower deck where it looks like the leak occurred worst. Not Y.
OMG, I was almost on that flight. It was my backup award booking in case I was not able to get an LH F award back home. Fortunately, I was able to refund this booking and fly LH.
I’d expect you to be most concerned with how the water issue would affect the availability of in-flight coffee.
LOL I won’t deny it.
Never forget the honey shower on a domestic flight in Brazil many years ago. Back in the day there were no limits for bringing liquids into the plane and a passenger had stored a large container of honey in the overhead bin. That probably broke during flight and honey started to drip into passengers sitting underneath. It was crazy to see passengers leaving the plane with their hairs covered in honey.
I love sniffing honey-soaked hair.
What’s wild is that it appears that the return flight (BA292) was “only” delayed by a few hours. It blows my mind that they were able to completely fix, clean, service, etc. that airplane in such a relatively short period of time. I had imagined the return flight would have been cancelled and the plane would have been sitting on the ground at Dulles for a while.
Duct tape.
Nope…they used spray on “Flex Seal”…guaranteed to plug any crack or pipe joint at 30,000 feet.
Lucky for them it was the clean water side and not the other, with sewer trout swimming in it.
Indeed.
Obviously the author doesn’t know the meaning of,”flooding”.
Shower *and* a waterfall! Emirates has new competition.
I was on this flight–it was really no big deal, particularly because it wasn’t a very full flight. Had it been packed, it would have been much more inconvenient.
How much water actually came out from ceiling?