British Airways Plane Crash at Heathrow Airport

[Robin]

This has just happened its on breaking news on BBC 1 now, they have a helicopter showing images of the smashed up plane which fell short of the runway at Heathrow, it landed hundreds of meters before the checked landing marker and has left huge dug marks in the grass eventually ending up at the start of the runway on fire.

Its the BA38 from Beijing, I believe its an Airbus A330 (EDIT its a Boeing 777). The whole airport has been shut down for takeoff and landing.

Fire crews has extinguished it with foam and all passengers have been evacuated. Although no injuries have been reported the planes outer structure has suffered heavy damage, the wheels have been ripped off and the wing has been torn from the left hand side.

This is one of the biggest crashes Heathrow has ever seen, luckily no one was injured and the plane landed on grass rather than rows of houses as the area just outside Heathrow is quite densely populated.

Pilot error or plane malfunction, we will have to wait an see, I will update as I get more info. Gordon Brown conincidently was just about to leave on the BA flight to China which is was BBC's political Editor Nick Robinson was there to comment.

Breaking News BBC Link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7194086.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7194086.stm

Some more shots including the lines left in the grass...

Robin

 

[DQuaN]

Yeah, was watching this on the news earlier. Sounds like it was mechanical faliure as apparently the pilot was really fighting to keep the plane under control.

Amazing that no one was hurt. It must have been a heavy impact to rip off the undercarriage.


*edit*

Just saw this:

An airport worker told the BBC's Angus Crawford that the plane's pilot said he had lost all power and electronics, and had to glide the aircraft in.

 

[Joey D]

I'm glad no one was hurt, that's almost unheard of during a plane crash. But Heathrow is shut down and no one can take off? How is that different then any other day? I jest, but really I am amazed the pilot was able to keep it in control, that takes some skill.

 

[Sureboss]

Did one of the passengers say they enjoyed their meal?

 

[Famine]

It's quite a textbook ditch. He's dropped it cleanly, albeit a little short, and everyone's got off unscathed.

No fuss, no drama (except for the passengers, obviously), no need for capital letters and flashing backgrounds.

Scotland Yard have done their best to help keep the situation low key:

There is no evidence the incident was terror-related

*slow hand clap*

 

[Slick Rick]

OMG! I use the southern perimeter road to get to uni sometimes. Might go there later today to see whats happening. Planes get real low there, its awesome when your driving past just as an airplane is about to land. You always see photographers there taking pictures of landing planes.

Very glad to hear no one got seriously injured.

 

[Omnis]

How do you drag a 777 off a runway?

 

[Jim Prower]

Kudos to the pilot for saving it, keeping the thing from cartwheeling.

 

[Sureboss]

It's quite a textbook ditch. He's dropped it cleanly, albeit a little short, and everyone's got off unscathed.

No fuss, no drama (except for the passengers, obviously), no need for capital letters and flashing backgrounds.

Scotland Yard have done their best to help keep the situation low key:



*slow hand clap*

You don't know, they might not be human terrorists...

I do think this has been blown out of proportion, unless of course it's pilot error. One of the passengers (a couple to be precise) said it felt like a normal landing. Clearly never been on a plane before and been told that landings can be quite bumpy, it's perfectly normal to land with no landing gear and skidding on the undercarriage. Dolts

 

[Robin]

I do think this has been blown out of proportion, unless of course it's pilot error. One of the passengers (a couple to be precise) said it felt like a normal landing. Clearly never been on a plane before and been told that landings can be quite bumpy, it's perfectly normal to land with no landing gear and skidding on the undercarriage. Dolts

And thats how everyone arrives and disembarks at heathrow airport!

Felt like a normal landing!....Gosh some people

Alot of dead worms in that grass now! Imagine ploughing a field with a Boeing 777... thats decadence farming for ya!

Oh, and how are they going to move it?

Robin

 

[ExigeEvan]

First they have to analyze it, imagine it being like a giant motorway crash. Well a motorway crash takes what, 3 hours to note down? This'll take about 24 I bet.

Then I imagine they just pick it up and dump it on a few flat-bed wagons and tow the thing away.

 

[Jay]

There has yet to be a fatality from onboard Boeing 777 incidents (besides one unfortunate ground crew member meeting a Trent 800), and luckly this has not become the first.

What a view it would have been from the roadside, scary.

As for moving it, they will probably use hydraulic rams to lift it and place flat multi-wheeled transport vehicles under it and tow it to a service hanger where it will be assessed and either scraped or repaired.

 

[TheCracker]

As for moving it, they will probably use hydraulic rams to lift it and place flat multi-wheeled transport vehicles under it and tow it to a service hanger where it will be assessed and either scraped or repaired.

Neh, they'll attach a piece of old rope and drag it behind an old Land Rover. It usually does the trick.

 

[Jay]

Maybe that could be a interesting Top Gear episode.......💡

 

[Sureboss]

Neh, they'll attach a piece of old rope and drag it behind an old Land Rover. It usually does the trick.

Just picturing the wheels not gripping until it hits the rock a couple of hundred feet below.

 

[Famine]

The data now says that the engines didn't respond to requests for increased power from 2 miles out and 600 feet up. So the pilot - actually the first officer - had about 40 seconds to respond from power loss to landing.

 

[Duke]

So he got better than a 12-to-1 glide ratio out of it, starting low from a very dirty landing configuration (gear and flaps down, high angle of attack), with no notice? Pretty fine piloting indeed!

 

[Famine]

So he got better than a 12-to-1 glide ratio out of it, starting low from a very dirty landing configuration (gear and flaps down, high angle of attack), with no notice? Pretty fine piloting indeed!

Well... he didn't quite manage the 2 miles...

It's still better than 12:1, but most really big jets are really very good gliders indeed - like the wonderful stories of the City of Edinburgh (747), the Gimli Glider (767) and the fabulous balls-up of Air Transat 236 (Airbus A330).

 

[V1P3R]

You know it's a hard landing when the landing gears go though the wing.

You don't know, they might not be human terrorists...

 

[Dave A]

Apparently he missed Gordon Browns car by 25ft.

 

[Duke]

Yes, but both the Gimli incident and the guys that diverted to the Azores started at a dramatically higher altitude (like 30,000+ feet), at 2 or 3 times the airspeed, and in a clean configuration (gear and flaps up, more or less flying level).

This pilot performed the airliner equivalent of successfully base jumping off the Eiffel Tower after somebody pushed you before you could get your parachute on.

 

[daan]

the wonderful stories of the City of Edinburgh (747)

Captain Moody

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.

 

[Famine]

Yes, but both the Gimli incident and the guys that diverted to the Azores started at a dramatically higher altitude (like 30,000+ feet), at 2 or 3 times the airspeed, and in a clean configuration (gear and flaps up, more or less flying level).

This pilot performed the airliner equivalent of successfully base jumping off the Eiffel Tower after somebody pushed you before you could get your parachute on.

His flight wasn't unpowered - the 777 had engines, but they weren't responding to requests from the autopilot or pilot to increase the throttle.

 

[jammyozzy]

This has got me confused now. The original reports were of complete loss of power, so does that mean that the engines first failed to respond and then shut down completely?

 

[Famine]

I know as much as Sky have reported, which is that the engines failed to respond to autopilot commands to increase power and, when the pilot took over and manually throttled-up they still didn't respond.

I suppose a lack of enough power when you're trying to put a couple of hundred tons on a slightly-wider road at 240mph is pretty much the same as a lack of any power.

 

[jammyozzy]

*Edit* Scratch that, I'm confusing engine power and electrical power.

 

[Jay]

I am really interested in what caused this lack of engine response, great job by the pilots to make it just far enough to miss everything and stop the aircraft with no injuries. 👍

Also interested in what autopilot modes they were using.

 

[land sea air]

it says the aircraft cleared the road by only 6 meters

anyone in the cockpit who wasn't already holding their breath sure as hell started at that point

 

[Rue]

It's quite a textbook ditch. He's dropped it cleanly, albeit a little short, and everyone's got off unscathed.

No fuss, no drama (except for the passengers, obviously), no need for capital letters and flashing backgrounds.

Scotland Yard have done their best to help keep the situation low key:



*slow hand clap*

Haha! Great post Famine. Couldn't have said it better myself (no, actually I really couldn't). Glad there's still some level-headedness back in Blighty! Anyway, good to see everyone got out unscathed. And people wonder why commercial pilots get such good salaries. There's a couple of hundred people and their families that won't be asking that question again!

 

[Sharky.]

Each time I read about this, I keep thinking how ironic it was that the plane stopped just as it reached the runway