British Airways flight declares emergency en route to Glasgow after incident on board

A flight to Glasgow declared an emergency just minutes before landing in the Scottish city after an incident on board.

Flight BA8722 left London City Airport at 1.30pm on Monday (October 21) and flew once a day for an hour to Glasgow Airport.

But shortly before the landing of the Embraer ERJ-190, a 100-passenger aircraft for short-haul flights, the pilots requested a priority landing as a precaution after a medical incident on board.

The flight broadcast a 7700 transponder signal, a universal squawk code that indicates a general emergency on board and gives priority to landing. Travel and touring world reported.

The signal was sent out on approach to Glasgow, with the crew alerting air traffic control and communicating with authorities as the aircraft continued its approach.

Emergency crews were dispatched to Glasgow Airport before the plane landed, the outlet said.

This was announced by British Airways The Independent that there was a medical emergency on board involving an elderly passenger.

They added that the plane landed normally, arriving in Glasgow at 2.10pm, 10 minutes before its expected arrival time.

After the incident, a passenger wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the crew on board the plane were “real professionals” throughout.

“Kudos to the team on BA8722 today for their calm, kindness and discretion in dealing with a medical emergency today,” she wrote.

Earlier this month, a Turkish Airlines pilot died while flying a passenger plane from the United States to Turkey, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in New York.

İlçehin Pehlivan, 59-year-old captain of the plane, fainted during the flight from Seattle, Washington, to Istanbul, which reportedly took off around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The crew performed a medical procedure, but it was “ineffective,” Turkish Airlines spokesman Yahya Ustun wrote on X.

The flight's co-pilot had to make an emergency landing in New York – but the captain died before landing.

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