A Virgin Atlantic flight has been forced to make an emergency landing in Boston (BOS/KBOS) after a fire broke out in the cabin.
Unconfirmed reports have said the fire is believed to have been caused by an overheating or faulty battery charger and was contained to one seat.
Virgin Flight 138 took off from New York’s JFK (JFK/KJFK) airport just after 8pm on Thursday night (local time) bound for London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) with 217 passengers onboard the Airbus A330-300 (G-VKSS).
Cabin crew were able to control and extinguish the fire within 2 minutes and the aircraft was diverted to Boston as a precaution. No injuries were reported.
Virgin Atlantic said that its crew had “responded immediately” and the plane had landed safely adding: “The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and we are currently investigating to fully understand the circumstances
“We’d like to thank our customers for their patience as we work with them to provide local accommodation or to rebook alternative flights to their final destination.”
A spokesperson for Massachusetts Police said: “Preliminary investigation suggests it is a battery pack consistent in appearance with an external phone charger”
