"Last Updated: Thursday, 17 January 2008, 13:57 GMT
The BA flight crash-landed at Heathrow Airport
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." Airliner crash lands at Heathrow
Fortunately, nobody seems to be seriously injured.
A quick check on the arrivals board reveals there is some disruption, due to the closed runway: Heathrow arrivals (live)
If you're unfortunate enough to be flying from LHR, I suggest you monitor the situation and wish you all the best.
Pauline was shopping at the Cheltenham Waitrose when she saw this on the TVs in the electronics section! From the news it seems like it disrupted afternoon flights, but things are moving again now. They interviewed a taxi driver who was driving by when the airplane came in about 20 feet above his taxi!
Kudos to the pilots who kept their cool, utilized their knowledge, and landed it (they say it was without power) safely enough to prevent the tragedy it could have been. Someone in the paper said "the pilot looked pretty white-faced when it was over" -- gee, ya think?!
On our news last night, this incident was being compared to an Air Transat flight from Toronto to Portugal a few years back. The pilot landed in the Azores safely. He deserved a medal.
I agree that the pilots and crew deserve great praise. About 12 years ago, I remember seeing footage of a airliner landing at Manchester on 2 of its 3 wheels. My uncle, a retired pilot from the Irish company Aer Lingus, commented on the skill of that pilot managing, as he did, to bring the plane to a gentle stop and only then did the unsupported wing touch the ground. There were no serious casualties then.
You're safer flying than walking across a main road!
My husband was trying to fly in to Heathrow from Geneva yesterday afternoon as everyting was being cancelled- he managed eventaully to get on a flight and got home only about 7 hours late (he didn't believe they were going until they were actually in the air and then wasn't absolutely sure he'd end up back in Heathrow.) I, of course, had a bit of a heart flip when I first heard it was a BA flight crashing at about the time he was due to land - bit of a personal relief to hear it wasn't his plane - and then general relief to hear there were no serious injuries.
We live not far from the airport, though thankfully not on the the flight path, and it does pass though your mind what could happen if something came down shorter than that one did. It's an area of high population.
He came though baggage really quickly - said he saw the plane and a bit shorter or a bit further on and it would have caused all kinds of problems.
Apparently, there was no time for the passengers to be told, but at least they were 'belted up' anyway for landing. Sounds like the evacuation procedure went without a hitch.
He is off again today to China - said he thinks people will be paying a bit more attention than they usually do to those seat back cards with the little illustrations of how to get out on a slide!
Posts: 927 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
Originally posted by Panda: My husband was trying to fly in to Heathrow from Geneva yesterday afternoon as everyting was being cancelled-
I can imagine what you must have felt at the time.
quote:
Apparently, there was no time for the passengers to be told, but at least they were 'belted up' anyway for landing. Sounds like the evacuation procedure went without a hitch.
Seeing as the passengers were apparently unaware that they had anything other than a slightly bumpy landing, did they have an emergency escape or did they get the chance to take all their luggage off with them? Has anyone heard?
Beebee
Posts: 1954 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
It was an emergency escape. I don't think they had time to take their luggage. BBC has several articles on the crash. I think it was absolutely amazing and a wonderful job the pilot did. He basically had to glide in without power. The crash tore off the landing gear and part of the underside of the plane.
What is going to be more of a challenge now is moving the plane. It has no wheels so they are going to have to try to cart it off some other way. One of the articles said that they brought in two cranes to lift it up so they could inspect the damage to the undercarriage. Hopefully, it won't continue to impact and shut down that runway. If so, there might be further delays in the 'short-haul' flights.
Our news showed photos...all doors were open and all slides out. They surrounded the plane in foam to prevent fires. It looked pretty scary. That pilot did a fine job.
Well I know this is shallow of me, but given that everyone remarkably survived I am allowing myself. I can't help thinking of all those carefully packed carry on bags full of people's special jewellery and medicines and stuff they didn't want to trust to the hold and they'll probably never see them again.
Beebee
Posts: 1954 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
Well, in this case the plane did not explode in flames (unlike the Air France plane in Toronto), so I think there's a good chance they will get their carry-on items again. Does anyone know?
I did read someone's suggestion (around the time of the Air France event) that you always keep your passport and money on your person, so if you are required to do an emergency evacuation, you have those.
Wow. I just got through reading the articles and watching the videos on the crash. That's amazing that the passengers didn't even know they had crashed.
The tip about keeping your money and passport on your person is a very good one. I always do because I have one of those body hugging, flat, long handled "purse" type bags, but my husband is bad about putting everything in his flight bag.
Beebee, in one of the articles on the BBC site (one of many! but the one where someone was complaining about their treatment by BA ground staff in terminal), a "BA spokeswoman" said that they have to wait for permission to remove anything from the aircraft, and when they do receive it, then then can go in, remove all baggage and clear out carry-on stuff from the inside of the plane, and "return it to its owners".
Didn't say anything about when that actually happens. They've got the cranes out to move the plane, so maybe once they get it off the runway and into the hangar, staff can go in and retrieve everything (?).
In the news release, where the captain, co-pilot and cabin crew supervisor were doing the press conference, the captain was praising the co-pilot and saying that he (co-pilot) had performed the landing. If you watch him closely, the co-pilot was just kind of standing there looking all little kid-ish, like a little boy being praised by his dad
Aircraft are now taking off from the runway but they are having to start further up and do some very impressive full power accelerations to get airborne.
Someone in the paper said "the pilot looked pretty white-faced when it was over" -- gee, ya think?! 
