Mid-air blaze leads to emergency landing

A British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Iceland last night after smoke was found billowing into the cabin.

Terrorism was ruled out after the smoke was traced to an oven in the galley area to the rear of the plane. None of the 268 passengers and crew on the Boeing 777 flight from London to Denver, Colorado, was injured. The pilot took the decision to make an emergency landing at Keflavik airport after thinking a fire had broken out on board.

A BA spokesman said: 'Until the pilot knew what the situation was he did exactly what he should do, which was divert to the nearest airport.'

The aircraft landed without deploying any of its emergency slides and all passengers disembarked as normal. A spokeswoman for the Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority said fire engines were standing by when the plane landed.