The captain decided to land the plane, with 220 passengers and 16 airline employees on board, when cockpit controls signalled a smoke alarm. The actual cause of the problem turned out to be an electrical malfunction in one of the plane’s economy class television screens caused when a passenger reclined their seat, British Airways reported.
The Boeing 777 had landed shortly beforehand on a planned stop in Hamburg, but when the plane took off again, the smoke alarm signalled.
All passengers were able to safely disembark at Schönefeld, and air traffic control insisted it was a “technical landing,” and not an emergency landing.