...about to make an emergency landing on water . Tannoy announcement on BA113 LHR JFK
 

Flying to JFK last week on BA113 from LHR a pre recorded tannoy announcement was played mid Atlantic. Went something like this: "This is an emergency. Prepare for an emergency landing on water."

The cabin crew and pilot quickly reassured us that the announcement was made by mistake.

Does this happen often? and How could it happen by mistake?

It has happened before and I believe some Americans sued BA over it.

The announcements are pre-recorded and are on a touch screen operated by the CSD. This same touch screen is used for many other functions. I'm not sure in this case what exactly happened but I can see how it would happen if someone wasn't paying attention.

I believe, in the past, that a passenger managed to get to the touchscreen and play an emergency announcement for a 'joke'.

Airline all over the world have the same systems and these kind of incidents do seem few and far between but must be awful for the passengers and crew at the time.

You would think that for that type of message there would be some sort of second confirmation input required. Or is there?

passengers remain calm
 

Strangely (or not) there appeared to be little passenger reaction though the crew did move quickly to the centre of the a/c