Incident at LHR

News on the BBC News 24 reports of an incident at Heathrow airport. A BA 777 has fallen short of the runway although there seems to be little other news at the moment...more to follow!!!

• Filed under: BA 777

Live pics on BBC show the 777 landed on the grass near Hatton Cross and it currently is sitting on its belly on the piano keys of 27L. Everyone evacuated, minor casualties

 

 Thankfully no significant injuries, it seems to have gone some distance on the mud. It is remarkable they stopped so soon. Does anybody know if anyone was there?

BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson is on the delayed aircraft that Gordon Brown is on. He is currently reporting on the phone, blatantly breaking rules there

An eye witness on the aircraft said that nobody was told within the aircraft of any troubles, he said they just landed heavily and then the oxygen masks started to come down!

Aircraft involved reported to be G-YMMM. Early eye-witnesses reported a very non-standard approach with a very late turn to line up on the runway.

Eclipse

• Filed under: British Airways, Heathrow, incident

Latest pics

• Filed under: British Airways, 777, G-YMMM

More pics:

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/AirSpace/photos/baboeing777accident/default.aspx

 

Flight's are now being diverted to Luton.  Not really sure how they will cope with the traffic.

BA confirmed it was G-YMMM

Delivered new to  BA May 2001

sn 30314

My guess would be he lost all engine power....

 

• Filed under: British Airways, Heathrow, 777, G-YMMM

Video of the aftermath can be found at the Aviation Safety Network. 

Pilot said he lost all engine power and avionics and had to glide the 777 in..i am confident that it's a rite-off

 

• Filed under: Boeing, British Airways, Heathrow, 777

Listening to all the news reports it looks like I was rite in saying it was engine power failure....I am surprised though, The complete loss of power and electrics is even more interesting when you consider this aircraft was ETOPS fitted...I recall an incident in the US when a 777 had complete power failure due to a fire in the electrics...I wonder if Boeing will ground all 777s??We must give a big thumbs up to all the crew and thank them for a great job in getting everyone safe..Well done guys

 

• Filed under: Boeing, British Airways, 777, G-YMMM

Just seen some footage on BBC's 9:00 news of the 777 landing, taken by someone outside the Airport. The landing attitude of the aircraft seemed to be increasing at a higher angle than normal so the pilot's did an extraordinary job in getting this jet onto the Airport itself.

Huge well done, excellent airmanship.

Hi guys, as someone who did a bit of work a few years ago on BA's 777 (no ,not this one), does any one know if the ram air turbine deployed? Am sure that it auto deploys on loss of power. Although may have been to late to do much good. 

No idea K....but our expert reported this on Flightglobal, this tends to say total power loss and the pilot started procedures to avoid drag..although doing some research myself I am sure the APU starts automatically when the aircraft looses power from both engines, can anyone confirm this??

See our safety experts(David Learmounts) video on the accident http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJiA2Nt6ljU

The crew managed to control the descent to a touchdown with wings level, on grass just over the perimeter fence at Heathrow, on the 27L extended centreline. The gear was down, flaps were set at about 20°, and the indications are that the crew had started the auxiliary power unit.

On touchdown the 777's gear dug into the soft ground and separated. The aircraft came to rest at the threshold of runway 27L having made a short ground run of about 350m (1,150ft), probably because at touchdown the aircraft was close to its stalling speed.

When the main gear separated it caused considerable damage to the engines and the wings near the wing-root trailing edge.

The weather at Heathrow at the time was wind from 220° at 16kt (30km/h), broken cloud at 1,400ft (426m) and 2,000ft, temperature 11°C, dew point 9°C, with a warning that the wind might vary temporarily to 240° at 20kt, gusting to 32kt. The visibility was greater than 10km (6.2 miles).

• Filed under: Boeing, British Airways, 777, G-YMMM

Nice idea to use YouTube, but it didn't work for me earlier - maybe too much demand.

What's the stall speed of that aircraft ?

Hi Daytona...i think the stall speed for the 777 is around 150 knots (172 mph)

Try this link for the video report

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/01/17/220900/video.html 

 

• Filed under: British Airways, Heathrow, 777

Here is a Google maps picture of the Heathrow area where the incident happened

 
 

• Filed under: Heathrow, incident, LHR

A very shot clip of the aircraft on final has appeared: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwQ4EHQY8Y 

More detailed photos here credits http://www.heathrowpictures.com/pictures/pictures.html

 I would have thought this image rules out any birdstrike

• Filed under: British Airways, Heathrow, 777, G-YMMM

 

Hi Goose, your picture in the first post and your comments in this about the damage caused by the main gear separating are revealing.  The main gear is usually attached to a major structural member, in this case the aft wing spar.  The picture confirms that the level of damage done to the wing is severe and I have no doubt the integrity of the fuel tank has been compromised in a major way.  Now ask yourself, what's missing from the picture?  The answer is Fuel.

 The damage caused by the main gear separating should have resulted in a major fire.  Since there was none, it's pretty safe to speculate on the reason why.

 

I must admit that running out of fuel would seem to me to be a very plausible scenario given what we currently know. skytrains' comments regarding the apparent lack of spilt fuel and the amazing lack of fire may also be consistent. Does anyone know what order 777 fuel tanks are emptied in ? Where would the last 5-10% of fuel be at the end of a long haul 777 flight ? Also bear in mind that it was coming from China - a country in which corruption and corner cutting is not unheard of. Does a scenario in which a fuel bowser operator might under fill in order to have kerosine left over to sell again sound completely impossible ? Maybe a bit of short filling, combined with unexpected headwinds and a few circuits on hold just pushed things those last few hundred liters too far.... Also, dont you think its strange that the heroic pilot and saviour of 150 souls hasnt shown up in a news conference yet ? More than 24hrs after the event ?? Other points: Deployment of the APU strongly suggests loss of main engine power in flight. As Goose commented, picture evidence seems to rule out major birdstrike. An on line and relatively straight landing would argue against wind shear (also weather relatively benign).