Hundreds of passengers were evacuated from a plane at London Heathrow Airport today after reports of a ‘serious accident’ involving two members of staff.
Scotland Yard officers were called to the airport in the capital at 6am following the incident near Terminal Five that was said to have involved two operational vehicles.
Passengers reported delays of up to two hours to more than 20 flights and British Airways confirmed a number of stands at the terminal were inaccessible.
The incident happened near Terminal Five at London Heathrow Airport today (file picture)
Passenger Alastair MacLeod told Mirror Online: ‘I was boarding through B48 at around 6.40am there was a visible incident of some kind of a stand outside the window by the boarding gate.
‘I spoke to the BA staff on the desk who were also curious but uninformed.
‘We boarded, waited, and then the captain gave a series of apologies and further delay announcements. At around 8.55am we all deplaned and I’m now back in the terminal waiting to see what happens next.’
Another passenger who had been on a Zurich-bound flight told Sun Online: ‘We boarded and waited and then the captain gave a series of apologies and further delay announcements.
‘It looks like some airport or airline staff may have been injured and police required an area to be closed off which prevented some planes from leaving their gates.’
‘The gate was surrounded by various airport service vehicles including two fire engines. There were blue lights everywhere.’
A police spokesman said:’Police were called at 6.06am on Wednesday following a collision between two airport vehicles on the taxiway at Heathrow Airport.
‘Officers attended with London Ambulance Service colleagues. One male was treated for non-life threatening or life-changing injuries.
‘Another male, aged in his 40s, has been taken to a West London hospital. We await an update as to his condition. There have been no arrests.
‘The Health and Safety Executive has been informed. Officers from the serious collision investigation unit have been informed and are in attendance.’
Heathrow tweeted shortly after 8.30am that it was investigating the incident, which did not involve any passengers and was not expected to impact journeys.
A spokesman later told MailOnline: ‘We are dealing with a serious accident involving two vehicles on the airfield. We are working closely with the emergency services.
‘Updates will follow. The airfield remains open and we will work to minimise disruption to our passengers’ journeys.’
A BA spokesman added: ‘We have apologised to customers for the delay to a small number of our flights this morning, following an incident involving two operational vehicles at the airport.
‘We are doing all we can to ensure they will be able to depart as soon as possible.’