In the late nineties, I was seated on the upper deck of a British Airways 747–400 flying from Tokyo to London. The flight was smooth and uneventful, until we touched down at Heathrow and the plane came to a very abrupt stop. There was a moment’s silence, then the captain said over the PA, “Senior cabin crew to the flight deck immediately”.
I will never forget the way he said it: there was no note of alarm or panic in his voice, he was totally calm, but it was the voice of iron, absolute authority. There could be no hesitation, no mistake, only immediate obedience. He wanted senior cabin crew in the cockpit now.
We pax all looked at each other nervously - WTF was going on?? - and sure enough within milliseconds one of the cabin crew came dashing up the aisle and vanished into the cockpit. I looked out the window and saw we were surrounded by fire engines and flashing lights. Yikes! Would we have to evacuate? Going down the slide from the top deck of a 747 would be ... exciting.
Everyone sat quietly for a few anxious minutes, then the captain came back on the PA, and spoke in the more soothing and understated tones typically used by BA pilots. He said something like, “We apologize for the dramatic arrival, but we had an indication in the cockpit that our auxiliary power unit was on fire. It appears it was a false alarm, but you will understand that we needed to treat it with some respect. Thank you for your patience; we will now proceed to our gate, where you can disembark normally. Thank you for flying with British Airways.”