A British Airways flight approaching Heathrow was called Mayday

A British Airways flight made a “mayday” distress call as it approached Heathrow airport earlier this month, according to a statement from the French accident investigation authority.

The call was made on July 6 after an Airbus A320 flight from Dusseldorf Airport in Germany received two standstill warnings before landing without incident.

The UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it was “investigating a serious incident”.

A British Airways spokesman said the airline was assisting AIIB with its investigation and could not legally comment further at this stage.

BEA, France’s air safety investigation authority, said the plane had experienced an information system problem as it approached Heathrow, triggering a stall warning.

The crew then flew the plane in a special way called the “alternative rule”, which bypasses some of the automated flight control systems. Another stall warning occurred at 3,000 feet – experts say it could have been several miles from the airport.

The crew’s earlier emergency call was upgraded to a Mayday, indicating imminent danger.

The BEA website claims it is with the AAIB, but the AAIB does not confirm that it is from them.

They released the following statement: “The AIIB is investigating the serious incident involving a commercial aircraft on approach to Heathrow Airport on 6 July.

The investigation will be a correspondence investigation, which means no team will be sent to conduct a field investigation, he said.

Aviation safety inspector David Gleave said there are a variety of Mayday calls, and it is “not unusual” for an urgent message to be sent.

“You can have sick passengers on the plane who need immediate medical attention…so that’s something the captains call, but it’s very unusual to have a significant failure on the plane.”