British Airways has apologised after an emergency alarm wrongly informed passengers on a trans-Atlantic flight that the aircraft was about to crash into the sea.
The airline confirmed that the incident took place but insisted its staff had moved quickly to reassure the terrified passengers.
"The cabin crew cancelled the announcement immediately and reassured customers that the flight was operating normally," a spokesperson said. "We apologised to customers for causing them undue concern."
One passenger on board the Heathrow to Miami flight on Saturday told the Daily Telegraph that people were awoken at around 3am by the alarm and warned that they were about to make an emergency landing.
"I thought we were going to die," he told the paper. "My wife was crying and passengers were screaming. Then they played an announcement telling us to just ignore the warnings."