Flight BA2552 was en route from Gatwick to Crete yesterday morning (July 21) when the stench, believed by passengers to be the Class B drug, was detected.
After making a diversion over Paris, the aircraft was sent back to the London terminal where its 174 passengers endured an hour-long wait for a replacement service.
During the delay fire crews were sent onboard to investigate the odour.
Father-of-two Stuart Barnes told The Sun: “We were four rows from the back and the whole back of the plane stank. The smell was unmistakable.”
Barnes added: “There was a faint smell when we got on. We were told that they hoped when they put the air conditioning on it would clear, but it got even stronger. Everyone at the back of the plane was saying it smelled of cannabis.
“We’ve been to Amsterdam and we know what it smells like. Our daughters could smell it but didn’t know what it was. You could tell straightaway what it was.”
Despite the opinion of passengers, the source of the smell remained unclear.
The unscheduled change to BA’s services saw hundreds of travellers stuck on the Greek island and created flight delays of up to six hours, The Sun reported.
A BA spokesperson told the newspaper that no evidence of cannabis or anybody smoking the substance had been found onboard.
They added: "Our pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin.
"We are sorry for the delay to our customers’ journeys."
