Report: BA plane was seconds from disaster
The heroism of the British Airways crew in Heathrow’s crash-landing drama emerged tonight when it was revealed the pilots had just seconds to get the aircraft down safely.
An initial report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said all had gone normally with flight BA038 until the Boeing 777 was just two miles from touchdown and at a height of 600ft.
It was then that the engines failed to respond to demands made both automatically and manually by the crew for more thrust.
With senior first officer John Coward, 41, at the controls and father-of-three Captain Peter Burkill, 43, in command, the aircraft “descended rapidly and struck the ground, some 1,000ft short of the paved runway surface, just inside the airfield boundary fence”.
The AAIB said its investigation was now focused “on more detailed analysis of the flight recorder information, collecting further recorded information from various system modules and examining the range of aircraft systems that could influence engine operation”.
The AAIB initial findings appeared to corroborate various claims that the plane had suddenly lost power. A preliminary report from the AAIB is due out in about 30 days into the incident on Thursday lunchtime in which 18 of the 136 passengers needed treatment – one for a broken leg.
The report, produced just over 24 hours after the incident, was published shortly after Captain Burkill, Mr Coward, first officer Conor Meginis 35, and cabin services director Sharron Eaton-Mercer had appeared to loud cheers from BA staff at the airline’s Heathrow headquarters.
Capt Burkill made a brief statement, praising his colleagues and revealing that Mr Coward, with whom he had shared a curry the night after the crash, had been the handling pilot as the plane descended.
Capt Burkill said that Mr Coward had done “a most remarkable job” and the whole crew had displayed teamwork and professionalism.
Ms Eaton-Mercer appeared close to tears as Mr Burkill thanked her for checking the cockpit crew were all right before going down the emergency chute herself.
Their appearance in the spotlight followed a day in which Prime Minister Gordon Brown had led the praise for the BA crew.
With the wrecked airliner still on the edge of the tarmac, passengers at Heathrow had to contend with more than 50 cancellations – mostly to BA short-haul flights.
Pilots’ union Balpa said Capt Burkill and Mr Coward were “ordinary people who did an extraordinary thing”.
Balpa said the men had no wish to be perceived as heroes and considered the story’s front-page status “embarrassing”.
BA said that the cockpit crew and the entire staff on the stricken plane would be allowed as much time off as they needed.
Valerie Firminger, who lives close to the Burkill family near Worcester, said he was “everything you imagine a pilot to be” and would have coped with the emergency “brilliantly”.
Mrs Firminger said the Burkills and their sons Troy, two; Logan who is about 18 months; and Coby, who is just a few months old, had been living at their house in King Stephens Mount for about 12 to 18 months.
