Air crash British Airways emergency landing at Heathrow

A British Airways jet which crash landed at Heathrow suffered double engine failure seconds before touchdown, according to reports.

All of flight BA38's 136 passengers, 13 cabin and three flight crew were evacuated after the Boeing 777, which had flown in from Beijing, China, landed just yards from a busy perimeter road on the southern runway.

The undercarriage of the plane was wrecked and extensive damage was caused to both wings. Eighteen people were injured and treated at Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge and other hospitals.

Six ambulances, two fast response cars and a hazardous response team were scrambled while around six fire engines attended the scene and the stricken jet was surrounded by a sea of firefighting foam.

The incident happened as Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to leave Heathrow for China and India. His flight was delayed because of the incident.

Heathrow Airport has been forced to cancel scores of flights and other aircraft flying into the UK had to be diverted to other airports.

Passenger Jason Johnson said: "We came in very, very fast. It's something I've never been in before. Once it landed, it spun 90 degrees. I felt like I was in a washing machine.

"The plane then came to a complete halt. We were told by the hostesses 'Please evacuate, follow our guidance'." When the plane came in fast, then slid after landing, "you knew you were in real trouble", he said.

"I was worried about the fuel, bursting into flames, the wings were making cracking sounds, the sound was very, very loud."

Airport worker Martin Green said: "It came in at a very high angle and just dropped like

a stone - I would estimate 200 feet." He added: "It's the first time I've seen anything like that, and I hope it's the last.

"It seemed to be flying fairly slow and it had a very high angle of attack. The nose was high up in the air, which is very unusual."

Jerome Ensinck said he thought the flight had simply suffered a particularly hard landing.

"When we hit the ground it was extremely rough, but I've had rough landings before and I thought 'This is the roughest I've had'.

"Then the emergency exits were opened and we were all told we should go through as quickly as possible, and the moment I was away from the plane I started to realise that the undercarriage was away, and we had missed the runway.

"I feel lucky at the moment, but I think now I realise I've had a close call. If we had hit the runway, it would have been worse."

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: "Regrettably one of our aircraft has been involved in an incident today at Heathrow. Our flight and cabin crew did a magnificent job and safely evacuated all of the 136 passengers.

"The captain of the aircraft is one of our most experienced and has been flying with us for nearly 20 years. Our crew are trained to deal with these situations.

"An investigation is being conducted by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch so it would be inappropriate to speculate about the likely cause of this incident.

"I would also like to praise the fire, ambulance and police services."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Heathrow
• Emergency
• British
• Airways
• flight
• plane
• Boeing
• London
• airline
• incident
• scene
• Airport
• impact
• crash

[matt01656]

I can't believe the pilot as sacked by BA even though he managed to bring the aircraft down safe as possible and saved all on board. Shame on BA!!!!

[davidthomasmaines]

why the hell do americans always think of British people s posh WERE NOT POSH not all of us live in london for god sake.americans are just thick!

[airplanes66]

@airplanes66 he has now rejoined ba as of 2011

[airplanes66]

@matt01656 he decided to leave due to the attention

[gr4l9um20b7o]

Actaully the fully-extended flaps were the key that the plane had made it to the runway. Flaps cause lift and drag, when the pilot realized that the plane would hit the road and buildings before runway, he decided to extended all plaps to let the plane float more for about a few seconds, just to make the plane to the grass.

[istvanklein]

@matt01656 The pilot wasn't actually sacked, he took voluntary redundancy and has now rejoined BA as a 777 captain. He applied for jobs with other airlines but they wouldn't accept him because "he had an accident", regardless of the fact that he saved all his passengers with his actions. British Airways has now taken him back.

[thewheijnen]

for all people who like to know what has happened: Ice blocked the fuel lines just before landing. Landed without engine thrust, pilot managed to make it to the grass.

[seafisherman80]

once people surive you cud say pilots do a fantastic job

[tylertashji13]

you dont need the slides to evacuate when the plane is that low, lol

[Fe3R100]

it was because the fuel-oil heat exchanger of each engine were obstructed by ice

[210482fmj]

a dual engine failure at heathrow airport on takeoff is something we better pray never happens. imagine if the engines both failede after lift off. thats would be bad news for ur day.

[haydnjames]

@210482fmj All the RR engines were susceptible to the same fault/danger but it would only become an issue under very confined circumstances. There was a documentary about the crash on tv a few nights ago, it showed a similar incident with a Delta Airways 777 around a year after this, though on that occasion the engines recovered.