Flight carrying England fans forced to turn back due to ‘undefined smell’

A flight carrying England fans home after the Euro 2024 final in Germany had to turn back, with claims there was a fire on board.

Eurowings blamed an ‘undefined smell in the cabin’ for flight EW8470 from Berlin to Manchester making an emergency landing while the plane could be inspected.

After passengers disembarked, the airline’s press team was inundated with questions about the delay from those onboard claiming they were given little information.

Some said staff seemed more concerned with telling them not to take photos as they did not want to appear on TikTok.

Passengers claimed they had smelled burning and the Airbus plane, due to fly from Berlin to Manchester, was ‘on fire’.

The plane, which took off at 8.09am local time and climbed to 10,000ft, was met on the tarmac by firefighters after landing back in Berlin at 8.26am but Eurowings said that there was nothing immediately identified as being wrong with it.

Passenger Gareth Davies tweeted Eurowings asking for help. After being asked to send a private DM, replied: ‘No sorry Linda it’s fine we can do it here, in public so that everyone on the plane can see.

‘Your plane EW8470 was on fire so you landed us back in Berlin, bunged us on a bus and sent us to the terminal and now there are 200 English people wandering about with no clue where to go.’

He claimed there had been ‘smelly smoke in the cabin, plane evacuated and NO ONE to offer a sliver of advice in the airport. Disgraceful!’

The staff member told him: ‘I’m sorry to hear that such difficulties have arisen. I can well understand the frustration.

‘Please go to one of our Eurowings counters at the airport so that our colleagues can help you with a rebooking and other questions. Our colleagues will be happy to help.’

They said: ‘Flight EW8470 made an unscheduled return to Berlin this morning due to an undefined smell in the cabin. The aircraft was subsequently inspected without any findings.

‘As a result, the flight will be delayed and all passengers have already been informed by SMS.’

A spokesperson for the airline said: ‘An “air emergency” was declared, a standard procedure to obtain a prioritised landing.

‘The aircraft landed normally at BER at around 8.30am. Passengers and crew left the aircraft via passenger stairs provided and were taken to the terminal by bus.

‘The aircraft was then inspected by the fire brigade. There were no findings. There was neither a fire nor smoke in the cabin.

‘There were 150 passengers on board the Airbus A319. There was no danger to passengers or crew at any time. Safety is always the top priority at Eurowings.

‘An alternative flight was arranged for the affected passengers. The guests were informed accordingly and provided with food vouchers at BER.’

Eurowings, based in Dusseldorf, is a subsidiary of German flag carrier Lufthansa and mainly operates domestic flights. It put on extra routes to the UK to manage the extra demand from England fans returning home after last night’s defeat to Spain.

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