Crash landing probe

Last Modified: 18 Jan 2008
By: Julian Rush

Accident investigators have begun their inquiry into the causes of yesterday's crash.

Investigators looking into yesterday's crash landing have published their initial findings.

They say double engine failure appears to have caused the crash landing of the Boeing 777 plane at Heathrow.

First officer John Coward had only seconds to struggle to keep BA38 in the air long enough to get to the grass for an emergency landing.

Investigators suggest that both engines of the BA Flight 38 failed to respond about two miles from the airport. The plane had been functioning normally until it was just 600 feet above the ground, near the residential area north of Staines Road, Hounslow.

These are the findings from the report of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which looked into what exactly happened on British Airways flight 38 before it crashed.

Here is text from an initial report released today by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) on the crash-land at Heathrow: Following an uneventful flight from Beijing, China, the aircraft was established on an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Runway 27L at London Heathrow. Initially the approach progressed normally, with the Autopilot and Autothrottle engaged, until the aircraft was at a height of approximately 600ft and two miles from touch down. The aircraft then descended rapidly and struck the ground, some 1,000 ft short of the paved runway surface, just inside the airfield boundary fence. The aircraft stopped on the very beginning of the paved surface of Runway 27L.

Investigators say they have successfully downloaded data from all three of the plane's black boxes - the Flight Data Recorder, the Cockpit Voice Recorder and what's called the Quick Access Recorder.

Total failure of both engines is a very rare event but it has happened before in other aircraft.

This initial evidence seems to exonerate the flight crew from charges of pilot error, but leaves open the technical cause of the engine failure.

One indication they may have failed completely is this - the RAT - the Ram Air Turbine - a small propeller-driven turbine that drops automatically from the aircraft to keep the pressure in the hydraulic systems that operate the aircraft's flying surfaces so the pilots still have control.

Today's report says investigators are examining the range of aircraft systems that could influence engine operation.

That must include the electrical system - where the 777 has a history of problems.

This Air Accident report of a fire in a power panel in an American 777 at Heathrow in February last year reveals 11 previous overheating events that led Boeing to issue new instructions on how to prevent them.

The detailed analysis of the data from the flight recorders will take some time, but with over six hundred 777s still flying tonight around the world the pressure is on to determine whether this is a freak event or something that warrants grounding them all to deal with the cause.