British Airways apologizes for crash message

LONDON - British Airways apologized Friday after a crew member mistakenly played an emergency message warning Hong Kong-bound passengers that their flight was about to plunge into the sea.

About 275 passengers on a Tuesday flight out of London's Heathrow Airport heard the message: "This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water," NBC News reported.

The plane was flying over the North Sea at the time.

"People were terrified, we all thought we were going to die," passenger Michelle Lord, 32, told The Sun newspaper in Britain, which first reported the incident. "They said the pilot hit the wrong button because they were so close together."

Cabin crew on the Boeing 747 quickly reassured passengers that the message was a mistake and there was no emergency, NBC News reported.

"We would like to apologize to passengers on board the flight for causing them undue distress," British Airways said in a statement.

The airline is investigating the incident to determine whether it was human error or a computer glitch, British Airways told Reuters.

"Our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was played in error and that the flight would continue as normal," said British Airways spokesman Richard Goodfellow.