BA B777 from China crashed? at Heathrow

robinph

Reports just coming in on BBC news that a BA 777 from China has landed short of the runway at Heathrow. Escape shutes out aparently but no fire seen.

Edit: Just showing pictures now of it parked at an angle at the landing end of the runway and one of the wings appears to be badly damaged as well. Long tire marks across the grass as well.

highlydebased

Apparently its undercarraige collapsed also

peter1892

'Landed short' according to the BBC...hoepfully everyone's OK...

faceman

Doesnt look like anyone was hurt thankfully. Heathrow airport has been closed

robinph

They are now saying just a couple of minor injuries. They also have Gordon Brown currently on another 777 waiting to take off to head to China, and of course a plane full of journo's on the plane as well who get to phone into their stations with "eyewitness" reports.

*Kol*

BA 777 severely damaged in Heathrow emergency landing
David Kaminski-Morrow, London (17Jan08, 13:29 GMT, 121 words)


Passengers have been evacuated from a British Airways Boeing 777 after it was severely damaged while landing at London Heathrow.

Images from the scene show the aircraft has come to rest at the threshold of 27L, and clearly show serious damage to the left-hand wing as well as apparent tyre marks in the grass for some distance before the runway.

No further details have emerged about the accident which British Airways confirms occurred to flight BA038 from Beijing

Heathrow operator BAA says the aircraft carried out an emergency landing at 12:42. The airport’s southern runway, 09R/27L, has been closed. Heathrow’s northern runway is still in operation.

Escape slides have been deployed on the aircraft and several emergency vehicles are in attendance.

*Kol*

peter1892

Another pic from the Beeb...

robinph

136 people on board aparently, 4 minor injuries.

They have spoken to a couple of passengers who seemed to be oblivious to anything wrong until the plane lurched to the right at the end of the landing and stopped, just thought it was a bit of a bumpy ending to the landing. Only once they got of via the slides and looked at the wheels missing and the wings a bit messed up did they think it was anything more major. Part of one of the wings looks like it might have broken into the side of the over wing window seats though so I guess there was nobody sat there.

All of the people who they have spoken to that were watching it come in have said something along the lines of the engines were very loud/ was turning in to line up very late/ was very low over the preimiter road.

cyrusdvirus

well at least it looks like no one was killed.

Is this the first serious accident regarding the 777? Cos that plane looks like a write off.

robinph

gatecrash wrote: »

Is this the first serious accident regarding the 777? Cos that plane looks like a write off.

One of the "aviation experts" just being spoken to said it was the first accident for the 777.

cyrusdvirus

On another hopefully, it was a one off mechanical failure, cos otherwise that flight crews career are over

Tabnabs

Airport is not closed, north runway still in use.

robinph

Few more pictures from Auntie here.

A lot of flights gone to land at Gatwick, Stanstead and Luton. They were talking to a passenger from the following Emirates flight and it sounded like they had more of an incident on their flight with the sudden aborted landing and then heading to Gatwick than the passengers on the BA one were aware of until they got off.

peter1892

gatecrash wrote: »

On another hopefully, it was a one off mechanical failure, cos otherwise that flight crews career are over

Well at this point nothing has been made public about what caused the incident, it could be one of a number of reasons. But it doesn't necessarily mean that this crew is for the chop (even if they did get it wrong).

GaryB

Thankfully there was no serious injuries, and luckily enough too
That triple 7 is for the knackers yard from what I can see!

Traffic

It looks lke the undercarriage strut/s has come up through the wing

kona

planes ****ed:eek:
from the interviews on sky news it sounds like, they hit a updraft or somthing which caused the plane to stall, just before landing, from the pics the plane was lined up okay, with te runway.
he missed the runway by a mile tho:eek:
looking the state of the undercarrige,it clearly hasnt collapsed, just looks like the plane hit harder than the towers/mounts were designed for and that is hard to do!!!. they are lucky nobody died and the plane didnt catch fire.

cyrusdvirus

This from the BBC website.....


Airliner crash lands at Heathrow

The BA flight crash-landed at Heathrow Airport



An international passenger plane has crash landed short of the south runway at Heathrow Airport after losing its rear undercarriage.
All 136 passengers and 16 crew escaped from the British Airways flight BA038 from Beijing. Six people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

An airport worker told the BBC that the pilot said he had lost all power and had to glide the plane into land.

All BA short haul flights from Heathrow have been cancelled and others delayed.

The BBC's Angus Crawford said the worker, who was not identified, said the pilot told him all the electronics had also failed.

Not terror-related

The incident happened at 1242 GMT, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to leave Heathrow for China and India. His flight was delayed because of the incident.

Downing Street said at about 1430 GMT that Gordon Brown had taken off.

Paul Venter, passenger wrote:

I could hear the undercarriage come out and the next moment the plane just dropped

The south runway is closed while investigators examine the scene - the north runway remains open.

Police have said the incident involving the Boeing 777 was not terror-related.

The Department of Transport has launched an investigation.

'Enormous bang'

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.

HEATHROW TRAVEL DISRUPTION
All British Airways short haul flights out of Heathrow cancelled for the rest of the day
Some long haul flights cancelled
Many other long haul flights from Heathrow departing late, currently about 90 minutes in many cases
The scheduled British Airways flights from Manchester Airport to Heathrow at 1540, 1705, 1850 and 1940 are cancelled.
11 incoming flights diverted to Gatwick
Four incoming flights have been diverted to Luton
Five incoming flights have been diverted to Stansted
For up-to-date information on later flights, contact your airline

"It crashed into the runway, debris was flying everywhere, there was an enormous bang and it skidded sideways."

BA said the cabin crew had done an "excellent job" evacuating passengers, and that it would release more information as soon as it was available.

A telephone helpline has been set up for anyone concerned about friends or relatives on 0800 3894193.

Chief executive of BA Willie Walsh said he was "very proud" of the crew.


Fernando Pardo was a passenger on the plane itself. He told the BBC there was "no sign whatsoever of any trouble until we touched the ground".

kona

how many back up systems, as regard to electronics does a 777 have??
very strange altogether.
could he have ran out of fuel???how long were they holding at heathrow?? as for two engines to stop ant the same time...at the end of a flight??
if this is the case the pilot and co-pilot should be given a medal:D
although sky said that passengers were not told about a incident which is strange as it the pilot "glided" the plane in he would of had to be at a certain height, im not sure but isnt it somthing like 1000M height needed to glide 100m??? somthing doesnt add up.

cyrusdvirus

I'd say the downdraft/updraft and stall situation sounds more likely.

The unnamed worker in the beeb report could be one of those talking to hear himself talk type people....

kona

gatecrash wrote: »

I'd say the downdraft/updraft and stall situation sounds more likely.

The unnamed worker in the beeb report could be one of those talking to hear himself talk type people....

true, id imagine those pilots would have been taken away asap and told not to talk to anybody.
i would like to see the flight report:D
shame about the aircraft, prob be cut up asap.

cyrusdvirus

kona wrote: »

true, id imagine those pilots would have been taken away asap and told not to talk to anybody.
i would like to see the flight report:D
shame about the aircraft, prob be cut up asap.

Wonder would Airbus offer them a deal on an A380!!

If this had happened a 787 the conspiricy theorists would be having a field day too. Especially with this bit!!

the beeb wrote:

An airport worker told the BBC that the pilot said he had lost all power and had to glide the plane into land.
The BBC's Angus Crawford said the worker, who was not identified, said the pilot told him all the electronics had also failed.

kona

gatecrash wrote: »

Wonder would Airbus offer them a deal on an A380!!

If this had happened a 787 the conspiricy theorists would be having a field day too. Especially with this bit!!

**** it bring back concorde......or a 707 my god the noise off them is amazing!!!
707 is my favorite plane ever, it just gives the finger to every enviromentalist out there:D and the noise of those pratt and whitney JT-3D my god, like a ryanair 737-200 only twice the loudness and screaming.
there is a video on you-tube of a aer lingus 707 or 720 doing a fly past.......:D
from an era when you could build/engineer anything witout question

ha ha ye conspiracy theorists, sure dont you know the AA 767 on 911 had that internet!!!
muppets

pclancy

Good to see nobody seriously hurt, this will be interesting to see what happened as the 777s first major accident. Double engine failure on such a high tech aircraft though? So late in the flight it suggests maybe a fuel problem but, I know, way to early to speculate....

PPrune has crashed too

Fox is reporting Richard Branson was on board?

kona

pclancy wrote: »

Good to see nobody seriously hurt, this will be interesting to see what happened as the 777s first major accident. Double engine failure on such a high tech aircraft though? So late in the flight it suggests maybe a fuel problem but, I know, way to early to speculate....

PPrune has crashed too

Fox is reporting Richard Branson was on board?

wasnt richard branson on /well still is on a 777 to china???

pclancy

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3204607.ece

The times now saying he was on board too.

Punchy07

The pilot apparentely said he lost both engine power and avionics and that he had to glide it in,couldnt imagine that's true,we'll soon find out I suppose

robinph

pclancy wrote: »

Fox is reporting Richard Branson was on board?

Branson was onboard the PM's chartered 777 that was taxing to take off for China at the time.

patto_chan

Very fortunate there were no fatalities.
There are second hand reports that the captain claims he lost all power while on the approach path. If so, he did a good job to get it down.
It will be interesting to hear the inquiry results.

And now some levity. Was Fr. Dougal on the plane?

kona

pclancy wrote: »

Good to see nobody seriously hurt, this will be interesting to see what happened as the 777s first major accident. Double engine failure on such a high tech aircraft though? So late in the flight it suggests maybe a fuel problem but, I know, way to early to speculate....

PPrune has crashed too

Fox is reporting Richard Branson was on board?

actually its not, a american carriers, i cant remember which one, their 777 ran out of fuel and had to glide in to land.......similar enough to todays incident