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Hero pilot saves plane passengers
Thursday 17th January 2008, 4:31PM GMT.
A hero British Airway pilot saved the lives of his 136 passengers with a miraculous emergency landing at Heathrow Airport this afternoon.
His Boeing 777 is feared to have been in difficulties as it approached the airport and the pilot had radioed ahead warning that he was in trouble.
It is thought to have had undercarriage problems so it could not touch down normally on the runway without risk of sparking a major disaster.
The plane, flight BA038 from Beijing, landed on grass more than 100 yards short of the tarmac.
Witnesses told how it banked violently and came in very low before slamming onto the grass.
The pilot them managed to keep control of the massive jet and brought it to a standstill safely at the start of the runway.
One wing was almost ripped off and both engines badly damaged.
Moments later the passengers poured out of the jet on emergency chutes as fire crews laid down a carpet of foam over the plane and the landing site.
Amazingly only three of those on board were slightly injured in the drama that closed one runway and delayed scores of flights, including one taking Prime Minister Gordon Brown and business leaders to India and China.
Eye witness Neil Jones who has a pilot’s licence said: “You could see the plane was clearly in trouble as it came in to land. It turned sharply to the left and approached significantly lower than normal.
“The pilot was working extremely hard to keep control. He managed to stop very quickly without any fire. He has done a great job.”
Passenger Fernando Prado said moments after getting off the aircraft: “I feel very lucky to be alive. I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”
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Was it the pilot’s fault, the planes fault or the asphalt?
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WHO CARES Anonymous Coward ….. ALL ALIVE AND WELL THE PILOT IS A HERO SHOULD BE GIVEN A MEDAL..IMAGINE IF IT HAD COME DOWN IN LONDON CITY
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..pilots don’t generally land on the grass! obvious emergency handled brilliantly.
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SURELY IT WAS THE PILOT’S FAULT THE PLANE WAS IN THAT SITUATION IN THE FIRST PLACE???
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landed on the grass to stop the skid and to stop sparks from metal scraping tarmac setting off the fuel tanks, common sense really! but his timing of when to touchdown was spot on!
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The article says that the plane was havinh undercarraige problems……so ho can that be a pilot error. It sounds to me like the pilot did a brilliant job of getting the plane down as safely as possible.
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oh and as journalists, maybe you or your proof readers should check for spelling and grammatical errors before submitting stories…
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A.C …. don’t worry, some of us get it! :-) (read ACs comments again folks, a little humour required).
Well done to the pilot though. A horrible experience for thos on board – passengers AND crew. It does show, however starkly, just how Airline crews switch into ‘emergency’ mode just as we think the job could be regarded as ‘routine’.
Top stuff, well done.
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Are some of the comments from blind people with brail keyboards? It’s obvious from the photo that the plane is on its belly and therefore a mechanical/electrical/software fault with the under-carriage was to blame. As well as being exceptionally proffesssional the pilot, who I’m sure will agree, was very lucky too, not to mention everyone else on board.
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That pilot is a HERO. I shall be inviting him to enjoy hospitality at the next Moulinex Mixers game!
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deedee,
And perhaps, your post should have begun with a capital letter!
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How can it be the pilots fault with undercarrige problems. He did a fantastic job under pressure. Stop looking for someone to blame, mechanical faults do happen pilot deserves a medal. Landing on the grass was a brilliant move. Well done to him and the crew.
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The pilot was a hero in what he did, but no doubt the british media will try and stir up some dirt.
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The pilot was only doing what he has been trained to do. Calling him a hero is just over-reaction.
Had the plane got serious problem he would not even have been able to take it that far.
We all expect pilots to be able to control a plane even if one engine has gone. We also expect them to make decisions that are in their procedures book. This is just what he did. A professional (as we would expect) .
If he had closed his eyes and called for his mummy , we would have called him a coward. That would never happen as it takes nerves of steel to become a pilot.
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