The mystery of the crash landing

Last Modified: 19 Jan 2008
By: Sue Turton

The pilot who crash-landed BA's plane said he feared the flight would end in "catastrophe" as he struggled with double engine failure.

As the investigation into what caused the malfunction of Thursday's crash-landed plane continues, aviation experts have told Channel 4 News that it's looking more like an electronics failure caused the crash.

At the crash site today investigators were crawling all over the wreckage again removing parts from the main fuselage and wings and examining the separated undercarriage.

From his mother's home in France the co-pilot John Coward described the landing as a series of thuds saying he'd tried everything he could to keep the plane in a straight line. He was now desperate to know why it happened.

The fuel tanks of other triple 7's are being checked after speculation that water inside could have caused the engine's to fail but this would have made the plane judder, that didn't happen.

The Boeing 777 is the manufacturer's only aircraft equipped with a flybywire system with a fully computerised auto pilot and auto throttle.

It's standard for triple 7 pilots to leave the throttle here in the centre console on automatic as the plane lands.

From his starboard seat John Coward repeatedly requested the autothrottle to increase thrust from the two engines.

When they failed to respond he pushed the manual levers forwards himself but there was still no thrust, although a physical move the manual throttle passes on an electronic signal.

So the question is did the computer fail to send both the auto and manual messages? Or were the engines incapable of reacting?

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report just said the engines failed to respond. Could there be a clue in the different levels of damage each sustained.

Whereas blades in the number one fan are visibly broken, suggesting this engine was turning on impact.

Across on the other side the number two fan is still intact, suggesting it was stationary or windmilling with no power.

We put a pilot at the controls of a flight simulator to uncover more clues. According to him, the Federal Aviation Authority has previously issued warnings about water getting into the electronics FADEC system of this plane.

There is a suggestion water built up, blocked fadec signals to engines which no longer fuctioned.

The wreck will be removed from the runway into a hangar tomorrow where the investigation will continue.