Passenger plane makes emergency landing at Heathrow after catching fire

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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A passenger has described how 'big flames' were visible from the cabin of a British Airways plane before it was dramatically forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport in west London this morning.

The Airbus A319, which was carrying 75 passengers on its journey to Oslo, was forced to return to the airport moments after taking off because of a 'technical fault', British Airways has said.

Dramatic footage from the scene shows smoke billowing from the plane while it is still in the air and eyewitness have described hearing 'a blowout' and seeing one of the engines on fire as it flew overhead.

Speculation has emerged that the plane had run into a 'bird strike', although there has been no official confirmation of this.


Both runways at Heathrow Airport were closed after a British Airways plane had to make an emergency landing

Heathrow spokesman said all of the passengers have been 'safely evacuated' and 'accounted for'.

The spokesman said the airport itself remained open throughout the incident. Both runways had to be closed this morning but were later reopened and the plane has been towed away for investigations.

Officials have ruled out a terror attack and investigators are now looking into the possibility of a bird strike shortly after take-off.

David Gallagher, who was a passenger on the flight to Oslo, said 'big flames' were 'very visible' from the cabin.

Mr Gallagher told BBC News: 'About eight or nine minutes into the flight there was a loud popping sound, not an explosion but definitely not usual sounds.

'There was some concern from passengers - people gasping and louder exclamations.

'The captain came on very calmly, said he was aware of the situation and that everything was running normally and he was going to run some tests to see what the right course would be.'

He went on: 'Then another five minutes after that there was a loud sound, and this time the right engine was clearly on fire. I mean, big flames, very visible from the rest of the cabin and lots of black smoke.


Emergency services attended to the aircraft following the emergency landing at Heathrow in west London this morning

'There was no disruption to the flight at all, even when it was clear we were down to one engine.

'A few passengers were upset understandably, especially those on the right side of the plane. The cabin crew and the ground crew were outstanding and completely calm, reassuring and professional during the whole incident.'

Pictures taken from inside the plane in today's incident showed an inspection cover loose on the left-hand engine.


David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight Global publication, has said the cover should not have been open and such 'damage' was 'consistent with a bird strike'.

Another passenger however has described how the casing of the left engine started to come away during take off and that the right engine exploded as the plane was coming into land.

He said: 'As the plane started to gather speed on the runway for take-off, the engine casing came loose and started flapping and at the point of take-off it snapped off with a loud bang.

'On the descent back into Heathrow the right engine burst into flames, creating an orange glow visible throughout the cabin. People were relatively calm until the engine blew and then started to panic.'

British Airways has said it has cancelled all its short-haul flights in and out of Heathrow until 4pm today following the emergency landing.


The plane is thought to have circled above the Greater London area before it landed, Sky News has reported.

Passengers on resumed flights at Heathrow were being warned to expect delays of 30-60 minutes as well as 30 minutes of aircraft taxiing time.


The incident is being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.







Normand Boivin, Heathrow chief operating officer, said: "Heathrow is now fully operational and the airport is returning to normal.

Runways closed at Heathrow Airport after BA plane makes emergency landing | Mail Online
 

Walter

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Jan 28, 2007
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Another exciting day in London. Thankfully no one was injured. Now, if there was only some way to blame old, white, Christian men for this.