Social media posts falsely link British Airways pilot deaths to vaccine

A social media post twisted a real-life story about the deaths of four British Airways pilots by making an unfounded connection to COVID-19 vaccines. 

A June 21 Facebook post, now deleted, claimed, "Airlines begin to ban vaccinated people after pilots die due to vaccine." The comment under the post said, "4 jabbed British Airways pilots die in one week. However, the airline denies any link to the jab."

A similar Instagram post claimed that in a single week, four British Airways pilots and one Delta pilot died and a Canadian pilot became unconscious on the runway. It also claims that these events were linked to the vaccine. 

The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its news feed. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with Facebook.)

The claim about the British Airways pilots has been debunked by Snopes, Lead Stories and Reuters.

The pilots did die, but not all in one week, and not because of the vaccine. 

British Airways dismissed a link to COVID-19 vaccinations. 

"Sadly four members of our pilot community passed away recently. Our thoughts are with their family and friends," the airline wrote on Twitter on June 17. "However, there is no truth whatsoever in the claims speculating that the four deaths are linked." 

The airline did not disclose the pilots’ names. Three of the pilots were identified by Snopes and other outlets: Capt. Nicholas Synnott, Senior First Officer Edward Brice-Bennett, and Senior First Officer Grant Mercer. PolitiFact was unable to learn the name of the fourth pilot.

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None of the news coverage about those pilots mentions vaccines.

Synnott died in June. He contracted COVID-19 in March 2020 while working in Texas, and he spent eight months receiving care  at UT Health and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston. His return to England in December 2020 generated several news stories. 

Brice-Bennett died on June 2. A local newspaper, the New Valley News, said he was found unconscious in a mountain-biking bike park in Tidworth in southern England. Forty-five minutes later, the newspaper reported, paramedics pronounced him dead. An autopsy found that he had internal abdominal bleeding, the paper’s website said.

Mercer died on May 4. Snopes reported that his death has no connection to a COVID-19 vaccine. His memorial page was raising money for "the send-off he deserves." The page said it would donate any money received over the fundraising goal to a suicide prevention organization. 

The International Air Transport Association, the airline industry’s trade group, said it is not aware of any airlines banning vaccinated passengers or considering it. This echoes what we found in another fact-check of a similar claim. 

"We advocate that people who have been vaccinated should be free to travel without restriction," the association told PolitiFact.

A Facebook user claimed that four British Airways pilots’ deaths were linked to the COVID-19 vaccine and suggested that airlines are banning vaccinated people from traveling.

British Airways said the deaths were not linked to the COVID-19 vaccines. Also, airlines are not considering banning vaccinated people. 

We rate this claim False.