Posted on 01/17/2008 6:17:58 AM PST by UKTory
An international passenger plane has crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport.
Passengers escaped down the emergency chutes after British Airways flight BA38 from Beijing came down.
Six ambulances were sent to the scene and three people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
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.
The south runway is closed while investigators examine the scene - the north runway remains open.
Eyewitness John Rowland said: "The plane's wheels collapsed, doors were flown open.
"On its approach it took the runway too low, just missing the roof of my cab.
"It crashed into the runway, debris was flying everywhere, there was an enormous bang and it skidded sideways."
Another eyewitness, Nick Gray, told BBC News: "We were taxiing along ready to take off and certainly out of the window I could see a plane coming in to land.
"I'm not quite sure if the under carriage was missing or not, but certainly what we saw was the plane coming down.
"There were some sparks as the undercarriage or the bottom of the plane actually touched the runway - certainly a huge amount of smoke coming up from that.
"And then the plane did come to a halt reasonably quickly.
"It was incredibly efficient the speed that people got off the aircraft.
"I could see that the shoots were deployed very quickly and people were coming down on that.
"Then people were sent off to the nearby buildings which are probably only about 200 yards away from the plane.
"There about six fire engines there now.
"There seems to have been regular dousing of foam on the port engine which obviously probably was the hottest one where the plane landed.
"Certainly there is a lot of activity and lots of vehicles with flashing lights all around the plane."
Unconfirmed whether it was a techbical problem or pilot error at this stage. Passengers said they had no warning of an emergency landing, but eyewitnesses are decribing the plane seeming to having problems on late approach.
Three minor injuries treated at scene.
This will snag up Heathrow big style. BA saying no flights have been diverted at the moment.
Certainly without the word certainly this article certainly could not have been certainly written.
That's "one size fits all" education for you! /sarc
Well...uh...you know...it is what it is.
I’ve seen reports this was a Boeing 777. Is that accurate?
Sky News interviewing a passenger now.
Says the flight had all appeared to go normally, the landing gear had come down, was on approach to runway and then seemed to ‘just drop’.
Yes, is a Boeing 777 I believe.
Saw some pictures of it over at the airliners.net forums; the gear is at least partially collapsed (maybe only one side) and all the slides are deployed, of course.
I’m amazed that an airliner with the technical sophistication of the B777, and the crew training that BA gives its pilots, had something like this happen.
}:-)4
Countdown to amateur speculation on the cause in 10...
Obviously probably this was a crash.
Some inbound flights to Heathrow now being diverted:
4 to Luton
3 to Stanstead
12 to Gatwick
So far.
It was probably old man Costanza trying to cop a feel.
Too late.
Heathrow Crash Landing Updated 14:27, Thursday January 17, 2008 The aircraft appeared to have landed several hundred yards short of the southern runway - and just yards from a busy perimeter road.
Sloppy maintenance?
..1...0. I'm betting on loss of power on short final. Nothing to do but keep the wings level and land where you land.
Which could mean just about anything.
Too late.
Well, DUH!
It was obviously Global WarmingTM
Wind shear on final approach?
Most likely an engine failure on final, may have been a bird may have been fan blade failure, it was a long non stop flight. Good to see it was a successful landing.
“Wind shear on final approach?”
I’m about 100 miles from Heathrow but it’s certainly bloody windy here today. Sudden gust nearly blew me into the road when I was out earlier.
Based on that scientific research, I rank your suggestion third in most likely causes behind (2) a passenger using their mobile phone and (1) the co-pilot saying “what does this button do?”.
Clearly Bush’s fault.
I wonder if the wreck will keep the runway closed at a very busy airport?
What a pain ....
- it probably wasn't an engine or power failure; it was probably pilot error; dipping below Decision Height (DH) on a precision approach, or below the Minimum Descent Altitude on a non-precision approach.
“Clearly Bush’s fault.”
I can see some trees in the background behind the aircraft, but it is unknown at this stage whether any bushes were involved ;)
Looks like a perfectly executed landing on the grass.
Don’t touch that button!
Looks like he touched down a good 1500’ or more short of the start of the pavement, and just barely missed that perimeter road. Apparently some eyewitnesses were saying that the plane was banking steeply on final and the engine power sounded higher than normal (but we all know how reliable eyewitnesses aren’t).
Plane is a Boeing 777-236ER, registration G-YMMM. 136 passengers on board. If they can’t fix it and have to scrap it, this would be the first hull-loss accident ever for the B777.
}:-)4
They'll probably have to rebuild parts of the lower fuselage and replace both wings, though.
“I’ll go pilot error all the way. Looks like a perfectly executed landing on the grass.”
Great link! It clearly shows that the plane -barely- missed auto traffic on a perimeter road and made a nice landing on the turf, lost all of it’s landing gear and skidded right up to a paved ramp.
This could have gone very, very badly!
Bush’s fault!
- Plane seemed to “drop like a stone”.
- Plane was 90 degrees toward runway on final appoach. (?)
- Made a severe left hand turn to line up with runway.
- Lots of engine noise.
- Vertical yawing and corrections on final.
OTOH, maybe part of getting landing slots in Beijing is that the emergency chutes had to be made from bamboo shoots?
My only experience with a chute was when it deployed into the walkway when the door was opened to deplane.
We had to wait a fairly long time to exit the plane without any explanation.
Leaving the plane, you couldn't help but notice a slashed blob of material attached to the plane, and being held against the walkway wall by airline people leaning on it while passengers walked past.
Funny, I don't remember it they were thanking people for flying TWA.
Hmm, a new short-field approach strategy? ;-) Those aluminum brakes'll do that...
Seriously though, the aircraft looks remarkably intact. Boeing builds 'em tough...
First things first...Thank you, Lord, for the safety of the passengers and crew.
Usually the words jet airplane and crash landing are accompanied by grim statistics.
Now for levity. Reminds me of a George Carlinism:
“Non-stop” flight. I don’t know about you, but I want mine to stop...preferably at the end.”
I’d bet you’re right. It’ll probably be repaired and put back into service...
Looks to me that the main landing gear collapsed and was dragged under the plane, partially exiting at the wing root.
IMHO one or both wings are scrap and likely both engines are junk due to ingesting mud and turf.
Bet we see a cell phone or security cam video in an hour or two.
Would be amazing video...
Not likely. The 777 engines can digest birds without even blinking. You should look it up on YouTube. There are some pretty impressive tests those monsters have passed.
A bird wouldn't stop one, or even slow it down.
Heathrow south runway is now re-opened for departures only.
That was fast ...
No fireball=no crash. This is what the military would call a “hard landing.”
I'm not a pilot, expert or anything like that. I've got lots of miles though. Ever flown into Anchorage in February or Vegas in July? Hooo boy.
One time into Anchorage in a 747, were were bouncing around like it was a 6 seater prop job...we were just at the very end of the pavement and we dipped like a roller coaster(complete with screams in the cabin), tagged one wheel, bounced up, engines revved a little, he got us level, cut power and we dropped and banged the pavement hard. The pilot cranked the reversers as hard as I've ever felt. I hope for no repeats of that one.
My anecdotal story makes me wonder if pilot error and wind shear didn't combine to push this into the turf ahead of the tarmac. Glad no one was killed.
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