British Airways flight from LAX to Heathrow was forced to divert to Iceland after off-duty cabin crew worker 'slit their wrists'
By STEPHEN MOYES & GUY BIRCHALL: EXCLUSIVE
13:10, 12 May 2016
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A BRITISH Airways plane was diverted after a member of airline staff tried to kill himself at 38,000ft.
The cabin crew worker is understood to have slit his wrists in a cabin toilet on BA Flight 282 from Los Angeles to London.
There was horror on board the giant Airbus 380 when staff made the grisly discovery of their colleague.
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It is not known what he used to cut himself. He was found slumped on the toilet seat after executive passengers noticed the cubicle had been locked for a long time.
Emergency medical help was given to the off-duty steward and the plane diverted to Iceland.
One British Airways worker told The Sun: “This was a terrible incident, everyone was upset.
“There was blood and tears. It was truly shocking.”
The plane was full of Hollywood executives headed for the Cannes Film Festival.
Stan Rosenfield, a publicist whose clients include George Clooney, told how one of the toilets was locked for ages.
He said: “Earlier, I remember going to the bathroom and it said occupied.
“I didn't feel like going to another section. A little while later, the same thing happened, so I just went to another bathroom.
"Then there were a series of beeps — I've never heard anything like it. All the flight attendants converged in the galley where the bathroom was and drew the curtain."
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A flight attendant told the passenger sitting next to Rosenfield – in Cannes to join Clooney for the premiere of his movie Money Monster – that a man had been found slumped in the toilet.
He was said to have locked the door before cutting his wrists.
The aircraft took off 20 minutes late from California at 3:50pm local time (11:50pm GMT) on Monday and was due to land at London Heathrow at 10am Tuesday.
The Airbus A388 eventually landed in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik at 7:44am.
The BA worker was immediately rushed to hospital.
The plane then departed Reykjavik just over two hours later and was en-route back to London where it landed at around 1:20pm.
Film and music executives from US giants Fox and Sony were on the flight.
Mr Rosenfield told the Hollywood Reporter: "It's very upsetting in retrospect when you consider what was going down.
"Apparently, they knocked down the bathroom door when there was no response, or they had a key."
Mr Rosenfield, along with other business-class customers, was interviewed on touchdown by police about anything they might have seen.
He said: "I asked the officer if he was okay. He said he had been discharged."
British Airways declined to comment on the man's condition and insisted on referring to him as a “customer”
An airline spokesman said: "Our Los Angeles to Heathrow service was diverted to Iceland so that a customer could receive medical assistance.
“The customer was taken to a hospital locally and the flight continued to Heathrow after a two-hour delay."
The BA suicide worker is understood to have been discharged from hospital.
One scared woman had taken to social media after learning that the flight with her parents onboard had been diverted.
Twitter user @beccay216 tweeted: “@British_Airways any reason why flight BA282 LAX-Heathrow was diverted to Reykjavik? Worried for my parents. Will they be departing soon?”
But she was relieved when the airline responded posting: “@beccay216 Hi Rebecca. The flight was diverted due a passenger requiring medical assistance. The flight is due to arrive in to Heathrow at 13.23 today. I'm sorry for the delay to their flight.”
A relived Rebecca replied: “@British_Airways thanks for this I completely understand I am just glad they are safe. I see they are back in the air now.”
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