Heathrow Closed.

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grober

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Heathrow AIRPORT is closed due to a plane crash landing short of the runway. BA038 flight arriving from Beijing
Only 3 minor injuries thank goodness but major damage to plane.
 
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Maybe it had an old COMAND disk loaded :D

Says a lot for the design that all survived OK (thankfully).
 
thats bad i seen one happen recently think that was the etihad airline not too sure though
 
But seriously ... I would hazard a guess it was landing with some sort of known problem and couldn't quite reach the runway (like the M1 Kegworth crash). In daylight and reasonable conditions the chance of a fully serviceable aircraft under-shooting would be slim.
 
Listening to the latest reports the aircraft had called in a MAYDAY and only just made the airfield. It had banked in at a very steep angle over Feltham in an attempt to get on the ground before a forced crash landing. It was nowhere near the usual flight path over London.

Looks like mechanical problems...I take my hat off to the pilot.
 
Yup their saying the Pilot averted a major crash onto houses. Hats off indeed.
 
Undershot the runway by around 150m with a very hard landing forcing the main undercarriage oleos up through the wing.

Still, far better than splattered over the countryside.
 
Listening to the latest reports the aircraft had called in a MAYDAY and only just made the airfield. It had banked in at a very steep angle over Feltham in an attempt to get on the ground before a forced crash landing. It was nowhere near the usual flight path over London.

Looks like mechanical problems...I take my hat off to the pilot.

Sounds like a catastrophic engine failure that caused him to change his approach to reduce the time over built up areas on one remaining engine. If he turned in tight as suggested, he would loose a great deal of lift even though the ac should be able to fly on one engine. This handling situation may have caused the ac to drop and the anti-stall would not allow him to increse his climb rate and so he ran out of sky. I'm only guessing here, but it sounds like he did the best he could. Glad no one was seriously hurt.
 
Planes shouldn't be failing like this; yes I know mechanical defects arise, but really....

But agree, as mentioned above, sounds like (as usual) fantastic and amazing job by the pilot. Incredible skills and nerve
 
I believe the closure affects the SOUTH runway only. I think the NORTH runway is still open. Our company flies language and music examiners all over the world and whilst none of our people was on that plane there WILL be delays and cancellations over the coming days.
Les
 
North is still open for all movements, South is being used for take-off only (as needed) as the plane is sitting on the piano keys at the threshold.

All BA shorthaul is cancelled, and a percentage of flights are being diverted to LGW and STN. Disruption expected until next week.

Mrs E will be late tonight, moving her clients around from LHR flights elsewhere, so bang goes curry night with the kids.....


There's been a lot of conflicting info - total power loss on final approach, hard left banking two miles out onto final, emergency landing requested, no warning to passengers and cabin crew, APU spooled up and door open in attempt to restart engines, failure of autopilot on approach, etc, etc. Way too early to speculate - but good to see that everyone was relatively OK with no serious injury or loss of life.
 
It is statistically inevitable that one day a plane will plough the smoky furrow of death through London or it's suburbs. Today they were VERY lucky. Next time, who knows.

Maybe it's not such a good idea to build another runway & hugely expand the number of flights.
 
Remember well the feeling when my plane from Edinburgh to Bristol (Embraer) had to turn back because of an engine failure (fire)....coming in FAST...fire-engines all along the runway.....sitting by emergency exit.....

That was one adrenaline rush I would forgo again.....:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:
 
Unconfirmed statement

Unconfirmed statement repeat unconfirmed:- An unnamed airport worker said the pilot told him he had lost all power on the plane as it came in to land.
He told the BBC: “He told me that the aircraft shut down and he lost all his power and and avionics.
“He just glided it in and lifted the nose up and managed to get it down. He lost power very close to coming in to land. “He said he had no warning - it just went.

Kieran Daly, an aviation expert from Flight International magazine, said he was shocked by the incident, given the aircraft, airline and airport involved," he said.

"The 777 is pretty much state of the art at the moment, even though it has been around for quite a long time. It's very difficult to understand what might have gone wrong.

"We're talking about one of the most advanced aircraft in the world, operated by one of the most safety-conscious airlines in the world, flying into one of the safest airports in the world. It's quite a surprise."
 
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Putting it on the (wet) grass would be safer than the runway. Less chance of fire. Reports said the pilot "dumped" the plane in a classic belly-flop.

Full credit to these guys, nerves of steel. It's even more creditable when one remembers these pilots fly day in day out without any "incidents". Remarkable they stay so sharp :rock:
 
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