Incident: British Airways B744 near Minneapolis on Jan 1st 2016, smell of smoke in cockpit and cabin

According to Avherald, A British Airways Boeing 747-400, registration G-CIVU performing flight BA-243 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Mexico City (Mexico), was enroute at FL340 about 230nm northnortheast of Minneapolis,MN (USA) when the crew donned their oxygen masks reporting smell of smoke in cockpit and cabin and decided to divert to Minneapolis, where the aircraft landed safely on runway 30L about 45 minutes later. The aircraft vacated the runway and stopped for a check by emergency services, the crew removed their oxygen masks. Emergency services reported there was no visible smoke, the crew advised it was an electrical burning smell, they didn’t know where it came from. The crew advised they were ready to taxi to the gate but wanted emergency services to remain in attendance just in case.

The remainder of the flight was postponed to Jan 2nd, the passengers were taken to hotels.

The airline reported a technical fault in the cabin, an examination was under way, the source of the smell had not yet been determined.