British Airways flight from Johannesburg diverted to Barcelona due to medical emergency

British Airways has not yet provided an update on the passenger’s condition

The British Airways flight was supposed to land in London (Getty Images)

A British Airways plane was forced to divert to Barcelona on Sunday, after a medical emergency was declared on board.

Flight BA54 was flying from Johannesburg OR Tambo International (JNB) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on 6 November 2022 when the incident occurred.

The plane was scheduled to arrive at London Heathrow at 7.45am, but was forced to divert to Barcelona El Prat Airport, arriving at around 6.30am, Aerotime reported.

Noticing that the flight had been diverted, a man tweeted British Airways’ official Twitter account, asking: “I was noticing that one of your flights that just landed diverted to Barcelona.

“They reported a general emergency. Do you know why?”

British Airways responded: “Hi David. BA54 was diverted due to a medical emergency.”

British Airways said in a separate comment to AeroTime that its “aircraft diverted to Barcelona to provide medical assistance to a customer”.

The Independent has reached out to British Airways for comment.

Medical emergencies leading to a diversion are not unusual for commercial airlines.

In June, a planeload of passengers found themselves stranded in Germany overnight after an easyJet flight crew made the decision to divert to Frankfurt Airport due to passenger illness.

Meanwhile an American Airlines plane was forced to divert after a pilot became ill and died during one 2015 flight.

Earlier this week, a video went viral showing a passenger punching a member of airline staff at Mexico City International Airport after missing her Emirates flight.

The video of the incident, which occurred on 1 November, showed the woman punching and kicking an Emirates employee before vandalising parts of the airport.