Plane Lands Short At Heathrow.

[Peter]

Today there was quite a major incident at Heathrow airport in London.

A British Airways Boeing 777 landed short of the runway. What initially seemed to be a pilot error has now become a bit more sinister.

It has now been discovered that while preparing to land the Boeing lost power and the pilot actually had to glide the plane into a landing.

The news report of the incident is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7194086.stm however the latest news has not made that article yet as it is only just getting reported.

A Boeing 777 I believe weighs in at over 200 tonnes. It must have been some feat to glide in such a big aircraft especially when you consider that the plane and passengers came off very lightly.

Only 4 people have been reported as being injured.

Gordon Brown was at at the airport when it happened. Wonder if he had second thoughts lol.

 

[snowbird]

When you are in the air like that approaching the runway, there is very little you can do but to try to land the plane. It takes a good pilot like that to do the best he can so nobody gets injured. Im sure many people are seeing him now as a hero. I am sure pilots train for events like that but on an ordinary day of work, that is the last thing you would expect to happen until it actually does. Then your heart starts racing and everyone is relying on you to save the day for them. Sounds like he did a good job.

 

[Michelle]

Full story yet to come out but thank god nobody died :tu:

 

[dgridley]

saw the pics on the news.. what a mess!

 

[mis_chiff]

Thank goodness for a calm pilot, this could have been a catastrophe -
and the comment

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

is an understatement!

 

[Peter]

Was watching the main news a minute ago and some of the passengers that were being interviewed claimed that they didn't even know there was anything wrong. They were under the impression that the plane was landing as normal. The first time they knew something was wrong is when the plane came to a stand still and the oxygen masks came from the roof.

I am sure pilots train for events like that but on an ordinary day of work, that is the last thing you would expect to happen until it actually does. Then your heart starts racing and everyone is relying on you to save the day for them. Sounds like he did a good job.

They are tested twice yearly and apparently this type of scenario is covered.

However it doesn't matter how well trained you are you do not know how you will handle the situation until it actually happens.

 

[Shane]

Oh god! That could have been my dad on that plane (his flight was delayed). I hope everyone is ok.

 

[Peter]

Oh god! That could have been my dad on that plane (his flight was delayed). I hope everyone is ok.

Going by the reports there were no serious injuries at all. Which looking at the pictures seems hard to believe. Just goes to show how lucky they were.

 

[Easydoms]

Just watched a news conference about this, Turns out the 1st officer landed the plane, can not imagine what the passengers must be thinking now, I dont think I would like to have known what was going on!!

But must praise all involved in this incident, and the passengers for remaining calm during the evac.

There is some some fotage of the plane as it was approaching the runway, still looking for it at the moment.

 

[Electric-Shadow]

Kudos to him for sure, I haven't really seen anything about this story yet but gliding in a plane with no power couldn't have been easy, I wonder if there's anything else behind this?

 

[Peter]

latest reports seem to suggest that both engines failed when requested for more power when 2 miles from landing.