"Terrified" passengers had to evacuate a British Airways flight using the emergency slides after the cabin filled with smoke as it prepared to land in Valencia.

Passengers heading to the Spanish city from London Heathrow tweeted about their "shock" at the incident.

Gayle Fitzpatrick said it happened minutes before the aircraft was due to land.

Mrs Fitzpatrick, from Glasgow, said: "It was very scary. The flight was just ending, and with 10 minutes to go, it started descending rapidly as smoke started to fill the cabin."

BA422 landed in VLC with smoke on the cabin and passengers leaving through evacuation ramp. @britishairways what is happenning? No info to passengers pic.twitter.com/FPcZbaC15d — Miguel J. Galindo (@MJGalindo) August 5, 2019

She said there was talk an "air conditioning unit" may have been to blame and claimed there were "no communications from the crew".


Some of the crew started to wear oxygen masks and protective fire gear, said Mrs Fitzpatrick.

"We were not told it was an emergency until we had landed and they were trying to open the cabin doors for passengers to jump down the chutes," she said.

Image: Passengers left the aircraft on emergency slides. Pic: Twitter/@lucyaabrown

Image: The murky scene inside the cabin. Pic: Twitter/@lucyaabrown

"There were fire engines waiting and then we were all ushered into a bus then to the airport.

"We are still waiting to hear what happened. People were crying and hyperventilating. It was genuinely scary."

Image: The plane landed safely in Valencia. Pic: Twitter/@lucyaabrown

Image: Some passengers criticised the way the airline handled the situation

Lucy Brown tweeted that it was a "terrifying experience", which felt like a "horror film".

Another passenger, Stephen McConnon, said BA's handling of the situation was "shocking" and claimed there was "no oxygen, no announcements".

#british_airways shocking handling of the emergency scenario at Valencia. Plane full of smoke, no oxygen, no announcements on the plane and no staff dealing with anything in the airport. The most terrifying experience of my life and no reaction from you. Shocking!! pic.twitter.com/N4ljWSogRn — Stephen McConnon (@smcconnon) August 5, 2019

He tweeted: "It was the most terrifying experience of my life and no reaction from you. Shocking!!"

Photos and video on social media show people leaving the aircraft on the emergency slides.

The airline said in a statement that the flight had "experienced a technical issue on its landing approach into Valencia".

The statement added: "All our customers were evacuated safely by our crew and met by the airport's emergency services.

"There were 175 customers on board the flight, with six cabin crew and two pilots. Three customers were taken to hospital as a precaution and have since been discharged.

"The safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority.

"In addition to our team on site, other British Airways team members have arrived in Valencia to help our customers and our local airport partners with anything they need."