Cannabis Smell
Long Story Short
A British Airways jet was forced to turn around, and emergency land after passengers said: “it smelled of cannabis.” The 8:15 AM flight was to Heraklion the largest city on the Greek island of Crete. Several passengers complained about an overpowering cannabis smell that was familiar to some passengers who claimed they had been to Amsterdam.
Others claimed the plane was turned around due to a “nasty smell.” The smell caused travel chaos, British Airways customers were delayed for 6 hours in Crete, which prompted many compensation requests.
The only answer the airline had to give passengers who had their journeys delayed was that the crew had fallen ill. No comment on the dank stench or its source. If the smell was indeed weed, whoever hot boxed the cabin before the flight should invest in a vape pen or a sploof. They’ll save passengers a whole lot of time in the future.
The Details
According to a Finance worker on board named Stuart, when passengers boarded the flight, “there was a faint smell.”
Stuart, his wife Susan, and their two children were told by the crew that “they hoped when they put the air conditioning on it would clear, but it got even stronger.”
This prompted passengers to wonder where the smell was coming from. When passengers noticed the crew was just as confused and alarmed by the smell, chaos ensued.
“We were quite concerned about what it was, and the crew seemed quite alarmed as well which put panic among the passengers.”
“We have no idea where it was coming from.”
Several passengers began to vocalize their frustrations and theories as to what the smell was.
One passenger said their daughter was already “afraid of flying, and the crew didn’t do much to make us feel better.”
“You could tell straight away what it was. Everyone at the back of the plane was saying it smelled of cannabis. We’ve been to Amsterdam, and we know what it smells like,” said Stuart, “Our daughters could smell it but didn’t know what it was.”
Other passengers agreed that “the smell was unmistakable.”
“We were four rows from the back and the whole back of the plane stank.”
After several complaints, the plane was turned around over Paris, 90 minutes into the trip. Passengers were forced to spend an hour at the original airport before a new plane and crew were set to fly midday. The plane not flying to its destination left hundreds in Crete waiting for up to six hours before flying to their destinations.
Travelers demanded answers from British Airways. One passenger said the “British Airways have been very quiet at giving us an explanation. All they said was the cabin crew was ill from a pungent smell at the back of the aircraft.”
However, shortly afterwards the airline apologized to travellers but insisted no one was sick on the flight. A spokesman for British Airways said: “Our pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin.”
“We are sorry for the delay to our customers’ journeys.”
The Final Hit
There is still no word on the source of the dank smell. The incident cost British Airways fifty thousand euros. Hopefully, a lot of that went to inconvenienced travellers.
