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British Midland Flight 92 (often referred to as the Kegworth Air Disaster) was a passenger flight from London to Belfast. Approaching the check-in desk, he wasn't medicated. "So many people died and I could have been one of them but I wasn't and it was just a case of luck," she said. It rests on a bed of soil taken from the crash site. Although she didn't know it, she had shattered her pelvis, broken all of her ribs, punctured a lung and broken her back. . There was also some suggestion the new dials were too small, and difficult to read while the plane was vibrating. Four servicemen and one service woman were . Then you think: 'I'm about to die. First Officer McClelland joined British Midland in 1988 and had accrued roughly 3,300 total flight hours. He is well known at the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes in France, where the family makes an annual pilgrimage to pray for a cure. They were criticised for shutting down the wrong engine in the official accident report and were . The damaged engine was unable to burn all the additional fuel, with much of it igniting in the exhaust flow, creating a large trail of flame behind the engine. The official report into the disaster made 31 safety recommendations. So while the loud bang terrified other passengers, Alan hardly batted an eyelid. Audio slideshow produced by Paul Kerley. This unnoticed vibration created excessive metal fatigue in the fan blades, and on G-OBME, this caused one of the fan blades to break off. It was then they realised how quickly they'd descended. Inside, all but one overhead locker sprang open and luggage flew through the air, causing head injuries to almost every passenger, and killing some of them. At 19:52 on Sunday 8 January 1989 British Midland Boeing 737-4Y0 G-OBME took off from London Heathrow for Belfast. [16] In the event of a malfunction, pilots were trained to check all meters and review all decisions, and Captain Hunt proceeded to do so. But I was only a bread man. Then they saw the stricken jet - one engine spurting flames as chunks of burning metal fell away. Read about our approach to external linking. "Whatever our motivations, it is good to have the opportunity to remember and honour those who lost their lives. The AAIB report contained 31 safety recommendations. He was a seasoned flyer - travelling up to 35 times a year - and about 15 minutes after boarding the 19:50 British Midland flight from Heathrow, he was relaxing in row one with a meal and a glass of wine. is dedicated to those involved. These will be submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization through its Cabin Safety Group. The Captain thought the smoke and fumes were coming forward from the cabin to the flight deck and was assuming most of the air in the cabin was supplied by the No. There were 118 passengers and eight crew members on board. "When I got home he told me he'd done it but I never watched," she recalled. The study between medical staff and engineers used analytical "occupant kinematics" techniques to assess the effectiveness of the brace position. As for the pilots, investigators said they had not been given proper training with the recently-redesigned cockpit instruments - in particular the vibration indicators. On Sunday, January 8th, 1989, British Midland flight 092 took off from London's Heathrow Airport, flying onward to Belfast. "The [left] engine was surging," says Steve. The ground proximity warning system activated, sounding several "glideslope" warnings. Many around him, however, were beginning to panic - especially those who had noticed smoke drifting into the cabin. Most of the 47 deaths occurred at the front of the plane but 79 people, including the two pilots, survived. It was his choice of engine that was causing concern. It is exactly 30 years since a British Midlands flight from Heathrow to Belfast crashed as it tried to divert to East Midlands Airport. The ground proximity warning system (GPWS) sounded, followed by a stall warning. [14] They had no way of visually checking the engines from the cockpit, and the cabin crew who did not hear the captain refer to the right hand engine in his cabin address did not inform them that smoke and flames had been seen from the left engine. The pilots attempted to restart the right engine by windmilling, but the aircraft was by now flying at 185km/h (100kn; 115mph), too slow for a restart. "The plane never really settled down and when we were coming into land the engine disintegrated - and I can remember the last few seconds before hitting the ground. The pilots mistakenly shut down the functioning engine. BBC News. It's the right one". He was the youngest officer on site and remembers having a clear view inside the plane as he helped survivors. Report No: 4 . However, it convinced the pilots they had solved the problem. For air crash investigators, McClelland's hesitancy was deeply troubling. Graham was hailed a hero for the three-and-a-half hours he spent helping passengers. Once he'd got over the "stunned disbelief that this had happened again", he quickly joined his colleagues in a police escort up the motorway to Kegworth. Alice tried to free herself, but couldn't. The crew hadby this point decided to divert to East Midlands. A . Thirty years ago, 47 people were killed and 74 injured when a British Midland Boeing 737-400 came down and crashed into an embankment of the M1 - a crash that would change the nature of airline . In the second impact, the forward fuselage separated from the overwing section of fuselage and the tail section buckled over, and to the right of, that section of fuselage just aft of the wing. This was followed by a minute's silence. It remained only for Captain Hunt and his co-pilot to give their side of the story. Captain Hunt was a veteran British Midland pilot who had been with the airline since 1966 and had about 13,200 hours of flying experience. Mr Salter was on emergency duty that night and was the first person on scene in the wake of the accident. The plane had come down yards from the village of Kegworth, just a few hundred feet short of the runway at East Midlands Airport. 2023 BBC. But he couldn't fly without alcohol or tranquillisers. And at the check-in desk he was haunted by his knowledge of Flight 92's seating layout. They selected full thrust from the malfunctioning one and this increased its fuel supply, causing it to catch fire. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) team called to get to the bottom of the tragedy had seen more than its fair share of trauma in recent weeks. Another man who braved the carnage of the crash site was Graham Pearson - the only civilian rescuer to set foot inside the plane. They took in air from both sides. And then there's another big bang. Plane Crash. Now, instead of unwinding while he flew home to his wife and young son, he was grappling with the knowledge that the pilot might have made a serious error. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The names of all those who lost their lives were read out. 2 (i.e. Even today she remains cool, almost detached, as she recalls that night - though she admits she's "blocked out" some of the horrors. It seemed that Alan's resolve had been justified - the problem was in hand, and would be nothing more than an inconvenience. At the time, vibration indicators were known for being unreliable[25] (and normally ignored by pilots), but unknown to the pilots, this was one of the first aircraft to have a very accurate vibration readout.[10]. At 19:52 on Sunday 8 January 1989 British Midland Boeing 737-4Y0 G-OBME took off from London Heathrow for Belfast. Less than 10 of the flight's total 126 passengers and crew escaped unharmed. . Others were buried completely under the luggage strewn across the cabin. The scene of the disaster, with the runway that G-OBME failed to reach at the top of the picture, Aviation accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies, and British Overseas Territories, The aircraft was a Boeing 737-400 model; Boeing assigns a. McClelland was the pilot flying until the engine failure, after which Captain Hunt took control. Two minutes and7 seconds after the failure, the No. Like many of the passengers, they were trapped between broken seats that had been thrown forward on impact. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. The pilot eventually came on said we were having trouble with the engine. "Not a sound. Like the firefighters, many thought they were on a training exercise until confronted with the twisted remains of the plane. It is noticeable that Bishop was on duty for the night of the1967 Stockport Argonautdisaster, an accident that also had a major influence on airliner survivability, and too on the exchange of safety data, and his experiences influenced his widely praised actions afterKegworth. "[31] BM later paid McClelland an out-of-court settlement for unfair dismissal. Phil, who lives in Garthorpe Drive, said: "They had dug out steps in the motorway embankment right up to the top where the plane was and the bodies were being brought back in . Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, Vol. [18], Of the 118 passengers on board, 39 were killed outright in the crash and eight died later of their injuries, for a total of 47 fatalities. But Dominica McGowan was one of the most resilient. The wrecked engine gave a few dying sputters and jolts. The Boeing 737 was a state-of-the art passenger jet with an impeccable safety record - what could have gone wrong? [5][6][7], The flight was crewed by 43-year-old Captain Kevin Hunt and 39-year-old First Officer David McClelland. She believes the reason for such a focus on survivors is because "it's so unusual for people to survive a plane crash". Remarkably though, the plane seemed to settle down. In one survivor's words, the jet became like "a stone hurled across a field" - it had forward momentum but ultimately fell to earth. British Midland, [20] Aid was also given by an eight strong troop of SAS soldiers, four of whom were regimentally qualified paramedics. I don't know if he realised the extent of his injuries," he adds. He was the most seriously-injured survivor and spent three years in hospital. Officials from the airline industry were also looking over their shoulders, as were the governments of France and the US, where firms who built the aircraft's components were based. When the plane first jolted, a vibration alert warned that the left engine was shaking violently. . In April 1991, he told a BBC documentary: "We were the easy optionthe cheap option if you wish. The aircraft broke into three sections. Their truck had been on the motorway when the crash occurred. Prayers have been said to commemorate the lives of 47 people killed in one of Britain's worst air disasters. The wreckage of British Midland flight 92 sits beside the M1 motorway after the crash. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow Airport to Belfast International Airport when a fan blade broke in the left engine, disrupting the air conditioning and filling the cabin with smoke. "At that point it started lurching around all over the sky. 2 engine was not displaying signs of failure. After much effort, he managed to free seven-month-old Ryan McCallion who was shielded by his mother but trapped under several bodies. You are completely, completely helpless.". Men and women lost their wives and husbands. Indeed, there is a memorial scroll bearing the air-crash victims' names on the wall of the Cathedral's ambulatory. [19] No one on the motorway was injured, and all vehicles in the vicinity of the disaster were undamaged. As the No 2 engine was throttled back, the noise and shuddering associated with the surging of the No 1 engine ceased, persuading them that they had correctly identified the defective engine. Using an airport access road, the fire engine got them as close to the scene as possible, before they scrabbled through trees and bushes to reach the edge of the motorway. I can see the lines of lights down below from roads and this thing suddenly lurches and there's a big bang. ON January 8, 1989, one of Britain's worst air disasters rocked the nation, killing 47 people. "I cannot describe it and I can't relate it to anything," he says. The pitch attitude was 13 nose up. A memorial to the victims of the Kegworth Air Disaster (Image: Will Johnston Photography). Steve Moss was in charge of examining the cockpit instruments. The pilots chose to throttle back to the right engine - partly, according to Hunt, because of the smoke in the cabin. Monument to OK548 crash victims at . The autothrottle attempted to compensate for this by increasing the fuel flow to the engine. Even when the plane began to shake, Alan read on. I like to think I'm a better person, but don't we all," Chris says. Months after the crash, when he'd learned to walk again, he somehow managed to summon the courage to get back on a plane. All eight crew members survived the accident. He recalled: "I was sent to East Midlands Airport, but before I got there the aircraft crashed in front of me and broke up into three places on the embankment of the motorway. The inquiry attributed the blade fracture to metal fatigue, caused by heavy vibration in the newly upgraded engines, which had been tested only in the laboratory and not under representative flight conditions. Little has been documented about those who passed away. Although written in his report on the 1988 Clapham rail disaster, Anthony Hidden QCs wise words are also highly relevant here: There is almost no human action or decision that cannot be made to look flawed and less sensible in the misleading light of hindsight. . G-OBME itself had been in service for 85 days, since 15 October 1988, and had accumulated 521 airframe hours. The obvious conclusion was pilot error - a theory given more support when McClelland's comments were recovered from the data recorder. "It wasn't a bomb. At 20:24:33, Captain Hunt broadcast to the passengers via the aircraft's public-address system: "Prepare for crash landing," instructing passengers to take the brace position. Furthermore, on both the B737-300 and -400 air from theNo. They live in a specially-built house where CCTV cameras allow the family to keep an eye on Stephen. In an emotional reunion, both said they would keep in touch after the commemoration. Victims' families, survivors and many of those first at the scene of the Kegworth air tragedy have gathered in the village to remember the crash. "It makes sense [not to think about what is happening]. A memorial was built to "those who died, those who were injured and those who took part in the rescue operation", in the village cemetery in nearby Kegworth, together with a garden made using soil from the crash site. As panic escalated among other passengers, all that could be heard in the cabin was the whistle of the wind, mixed with screams and whimpers. I never thought I'd meet him again". What he told them painted a picture of confusion and panic. Kegworth air disaster memorials (12 F) L. Lancaster 4103 and Airspeed LB415 Crash . So yes they turned off the good engine and people died. right hand) engine. He had to give up the job he loved and has never been able to play sport with his son. What's he waiting for? Some 47 people died when a British Midland Boeing 737 from Heathrow to Belfast went down in an embankment of the M1 as it tried to divert to East Midlands Airport on January 8, 1989. "We see a lot of dead bodies in this line of work but it's a bit different to see badly injured survivors. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Survivors of the Kegworth air disaster, and local families who lost loved ones in the crash, will attend a special event in Leicestershire tomorrow to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy. The next moment, his nerves were shattered by an explosion. But sadness creeps into his voice when he remembers the aftermath of the crash, as rescuers tried desperately to reach those trapped deep inside the wreckage. Among them was Captain Kevin Hunt, trapped but conscious in his seat for more than two hours. Thirty three minutes later 47 people on board would be dead in a crash near the Leicestershirevillage of Kegworth. Thirty three minutes later 47 people on board would be dead in a crash near the Leicestershire village of Kegworth. Passengers, both alive and dead, continued to be pulled from the wreckage. He shouldn't have been on that plane. Eighteen months after Kegworth, the AAIB published its report. 8 January 1989 Aircraft type: Boeing 737-400 Location: Near Kegworth, Leicestershire Registration: G-OBME. [15], When the pilots shut down the right engine, they could no longer smell the smoke, which led them to believe that they had correctly dealt with the problem. He broke his neck and back his spine was left hanging by a thread. [29], Captain Hunt and First Officer McClelland, both seriously injured in the crash, were dismissed following the criticisms of their actions in the Air Accidents Investigation Branch report. in the rescue and who gave aid at the. Chris refused to travel in certain parts of the cabin. While they methodically combed the wreckage, the investigation was already coming under political scrutiny. At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Copyright Legal and Privacy | Sitemap, major influence on airliner survivability, Kegworth plane crash: Survivor takes first steps 30 years on, Kegworth rescuer relives the night Withernsea lifeboat crew helped save 79 lives, Kegworth disaster 30 years on: How stewardess Anne survived the crash on only her third working trip, Kegworth air disaster: Survivors and families to remember victims 30 years on. She died in hospital three weeks later, shortly before she was due to return home. 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