British Airways crash caused by 'unknown ice fault'
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Tuesday, 09, Feb 2010 04:00
By Richard James.
An "unknown ice fault" had been blamed for causing a British Airways Boeing 777 to crash-land at Heathrow airport two years ago, an official report has found.
The plane lost power in both engines due to restricted fuel flow on January 18th 2008 as it came in to land at the London airport.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the build-up of ice in the fuel system had not been covered by plane safety requirements at the time of the crash.
The BA flight, carrying 152 people, narrowly missed Heathrow's perimeter road and nearby buildings when it crash-landed short of the runway. None of those onboard were seriously injured, although the pilot Captain Peter Burkill has since admitted he thought there would be mass casualties.
"It naturally became apparent that we were going to crash and we were not going to make the runway," he told the BBC.
"My view of that accident from that point was that we were going to start descending very quickly - about an 1,800ft descent rate - and I could see the impact point was going to be around about the Hatton Cross area which includes catering buildings, a Tube station and a petrol station."
He said his main concern was getting the Boeing 777 over the surrounding buildings and away from the airport road.
As the plane struck the ground and slid almost 400m, Capt Burkill admitted he thought he was going to die.
"We were now in an aircraft on the ground that was sliding uncontrollably and at that point I thought I was going to die, so I said goodbye to my wife," he added.
The AAIB report into the crash said ice had probably formed from water that occurred naturally in the plane's fuel, adding that when fuel temperatures were in a "sticky range", ice crystals were most likely to stick to their surroundings.
The investigation concluded safety regulations at the time of the crash "did not take account of this phenomenon as the risk was unrecognised at that time".
Nine recommendations were made following earlier investigations into the accident and another nine were made on Tuesday, including addressing the ability of an aircraft to withstand accidents.