You couldn’t make it up.
A transatlantic flight has been forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport after heat from chilli peppers caused a fire alarm to go off.
The crew of Air France flight AF-733 from the Dominican Republic to Paris issued a ‘mayday’ 800km from Shannon.
A fire alarm had gone off in the forward cargo hold and they told Air Traffic Control in County Clare that they needed to land as soon as possible.
Fire crews, ambulances, gardaí, the Irish Coast Guard and RNLI were all alerted.
No fire was found on board the flight, which held 142 passengers and 12 crew, with thermal imaging cameras discovering that heat from the vegetables had set off the alarm.
The Irish Times reports that in September and March, two planes flying between America and the Netherlands both made emergency landings at Shannon after the crew reported a possible fire on board.
They were carrying flowers.
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