BA 777 Lands Short

[athomeinthesky]

An airport worker told the BBC the pilot on the Boeing 777 had said he had lost all power, and had been forced to glide the plane into land.

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

The worker also said the pilot had told him all the electronics had also failed.

"He said he had no warning - it just went," the worker added.

"It's a miracle. The man deserves a medal as big as a frying pan."

BA refused to comment on the report and said it would not speculate on the cause of the crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/7194086.stm

[FlySooner9]

some people mentioned a flock of LARGE birds, but in the pictures theres no evidence of any bird strikes on the nose or anything.

[Stone Cold]

Ya'll are getting too wrapped up in the avionics. How in the world did they flame out both engines on short final?

[PGT]

I know, dual engine failure in a 777? what are the chances of that one.

too bad it's illegal to broadcast atc in the uk, otherwise we'd probably know a little more with what's going on.

[wheelsup]

That's what I call putting it on the numbers.

[SeanD]

This is one of BAs newer 777s. Strange indeed. It will be interesting to see what the investigation comes up with.

[Minuteman]

Ah, well, in that case it must be the British and their wacky positive-ground electrical convention.

[Mrs.Alchemist]

The latest article I happened upon blamed it on wind shear... Anyhow, it's scary! (Oh, and I read that this 777 was 6 years old)


Passenger jet crash lands at Heathrow

Witness: 'Debris was flying everywhere;' eight treated for minor injuries


Stephen Hird / Reuters


...
"Wind shear to blame?
Robert Cullemore of Aviation Economics, a London-based aviation consultancy, said a pilot from a competing airline told him officials believed the cause of the accident was wind shear, a sudden gust of wind.
“It can happen anytime anywhere and if it happens you just hope there is no airplane nearby,” Cullemore said.
He said the pilot kept the plane in the air long enough to prevent a disastrous outcome.
“If it had landed 200 meters (yards) shorter than it did, it may have hit perimeter fence and obviously some other buildings and the car park, clearly we would be dealing with fatalities and obvious damage,” Cullemore said. "

[PGT]

wind shear doesn't cause engines to go out

[Mrs.Alchemist]

No, it doesn't... that's just what the article said... and it didn't mention any engines...

[N826AW]

Seats Cushions, Seat Covers

I imagine there are a few stained seat covers on that airplane.

[fadec]

Ouch. Thank God there were only minor injuries!

[PGT]

Originally Posted by fadec

Ouch. Thank God there were only minor injuries!

That's what happens when you build em in America!!

[skyrunner1500]

Originally Posted by Doug Taylor

Good! Sitting here in Milan and lemme check, yup COCKTAIL TIME! See you guys later!

Dang. I had a long productive sit at LIMC at noon and went to LIML in the evening. Could have gone somewhere for a drink.

[Doug Taylor]

Originally Posted by skyrunner1500

Dang. I had a long productive sit at LIMC at noon and went to LIML in the evening. Could have gone somewhere for a drink.

I'm here for 48 hours, so if you're close let me know!

[P&H]

Originally Posted by Stone Cold

Ya'll are getting too wrapped up in the avionics. How in the world did they flame out both engines on short final?

other than fuel starvation who knows?

[asl]

Fuel starvation has been ruled out. Latest reports on BBC have had aeronautics experts saying that double engine failure is extremely unlikely and wind shear is most likely. There were no warnings to passengers or crew or ATC of an emergency. It must have happened right in the very last minute of flight. Weather was poor with strong blustery winds and thunderstorms in the area. If the reports from the pilot of all engines and avionics going then it's possible wind shear plus a lightning strike could have caused this scenario. Either way there'll be a preliminary findings from Air Crash Investigators in 48 hours.

LHR is running services past the 2300 curfew until 0130 to catch up.
The southern runway (where the plane crashed) is operating for t/o and the northern runway for landing since 1830 this evening.
The whole airport was initially shut for 40 mins after the crash. 23 flights diverted. After this the northern runway was operated as a single runway operation until 1830.
200+ flights cancelled today.

The flight crew did a very good job to make the field at all, apparently the perimeter fence was missed by just 15ft. Blanket coverage on all UK national news - at least 15 mins out of a 30 minute bulletin.

[flyover]

Originally Posted by asl

Weather was poor with strong blustery winds and thunderstorms in the area.

The flight crew did a very good job to make the field at all,

Depends on the eventual findings I guess. If they dead-sticked it in and only hurt a few people then bloody good for them. If they shot an approach through a thunderstorm......not so much.

[JDMcFly]

If this happened 15 seconds earlier, we'd be hearing a terrible story of a jumbo-jet colliding with a busy highway.

The first thing I thought of when I heard the story was wind shear, but whatdoiknow. We'll have to wait and see.

[OldTownPilot]

Someone only had a good landing today

[Raskolnikov]

Well, it's good everyone survived. Sad day for the 777

All available fire engine cover was deployed to assist the stricken flight BA38 from Beijing after it fell short of the runway, after reportedly approaching the ground at an angle.

Ah, so it approached the ground at an angle. That explains it.

[taseal]

my questions is

how do you fly this plane with avionics lost?

777 is a FBW plane, it needs the computers to fly it.

I'm sure they still had avionics. I mean hell, they have that backup APU with the propeller on it that windmills to generate power.

[Screaming_Emu]

Originally Posted by West_Indian400

List of spare parts that may be re-useable: Seats Cushions, Seat Covers...

Oh I doubt it :-P

[Fly4Pay]

Originally Posted by Raskolnikov

Well, it's good everyone survived. Sad day for the 777

Ah, so it approached the ground at an angle. That explains it.

Yeah, reminds me of what a passenger (older lady) once said to me...

HER: "Those planes sure do come in low when they land."

ME (in total serious mode): "Yes ma'am, that's where they keep the runway."

After a second or two, her husband got the joke, then asked...

HIM: "Well, couldn't they just come in higher and then come in steeper at the end?"

ME (again totally serious): "Sure.... once."

[WestIndian425]

Naturally we can all speculate at this point. Dual engine flameout would cause loss of avionics until the RAT were to be deployed, but that would take time...which at 500 feet isn't nearly enough.

I'm happy that it turned out with a few minor injuries. Life is the most important thing, and kudos to the SpeedBird pilots for a good job. As for the aircraft, it's sad for this to happen, and now both A&B's flagships (not counting the A380) have experienced hull loss.

On a lighter note....I hope when I go for my PC in a few weeks the instructor doesn't decide to "throw this scenario in just for fun".