British Airways Flight 38

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British Airways Flight 38
BA38 Crash.jpg

Accident summary
Accident type Missing out (touching down in front of the runway)
place London Heathrow Airport , UK
date January 17, 2008
Fatalities 0
Survivors 152 (all)
Injured 47
Aircraft
Aircraft type Boeing 777-236ER
operator British Airways
Mark G-YMMM
Departure airport Beijing Airport , People's Republic of China
Destination airport London Heathrow Airport, UK
Passengers 136
crew 16
Lists of aviation accidents

British Airways Flight 38 was a scheduled flight of the British airline British Airways from Beijing Capital International Airport to London Heathrow airport , one on the 17 January 2008 Boeing 777 during landing at 12:42 local time in front of the runway sat. It was the first flight accident involving a Boeing 777, which had to be written off due to the incident. 47 people were injured in the crash landing, one of them seriously.

Course of the accident

The Boeing 777-236ER with the registration G-YMMM and the serial number 30314 did not respond to an auto-throttle request ( automatic thrust control) shortly before landing at an altitude of 720 feet (approx. 220 m) around 3200 m from the touchdown point. nor to a manual thrust request from the pilots. The aircraft's autopilot tried to keep to the glide path provided by the instrument landing system . The adjustment of the angle of attack - even in spite of manual inputs - did not increase the thrust, reduced the speed to up to 108  knots (instead of 134 knots) at an altitude of 200 feet. In order to avoid the stall announced by warning displays, the flying pilot reduced the angle of attack of the machine, which resulted in the autopilot being switched off at an altitude of 175 feet. When the pilots realized that they would no longer be able to reach the runway, they contacted the tower with an emergency call. The aircraft touched down about 300 meters from the start of runway 27L and slid over the grass. The nose landing gear buckled and the right main landing gear detached from the fuselage, with parts penetrating the middle kerosene tank and the fuselage. The left main landing gear was propelled up through the wing. The machine then came to a standstill at the start of the runway. Although fuel leaked, there was no fire. Passengers reported that the aircraft "just sagged" after the landing gear was locked. The plane flew over the A30 road just eight meters above the cars driving on it, including the vehicle of Prime Minister Gordon Brown , who was on his way to the airport because of an upcoming international trip. Eight ambulances were sent to the scene of the accident. A passenger sustained a broken leg as a result of undercarriage parts getting into the fuselage of the aircraft. Twelve crew members and 34 passengers suffered minor injuries. Some of them were taken to hospitals with abrasions but discharged in the evening. One passenger was kept in hospital overnight with a cut.

The 138 ton aircraft was badly damaged. It was the first total write-off of a Boeing 777. However, it was the third incident in which a British Airways Boeing 777 was involved.

Possible cause of the accident

The British Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigated the accident . In accordance with international custom, the manufacturer of the engines, Rolls-Royce , the manufacturer Boeing and - since the aircraft was made in the United States - the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) offered to support the investigations.

British Airways board member Willie Walsh praised the crew's reaction, which “safely evacuated all 136 passengers. The captain of the plane is one of our most experienced and has been flying for us for almost twenty years. Our crews are trained to deal with such situations ”. He also praised the behavior of the fire brigade , rescue services and police .

The blue dot marks the place where the aircraft came to a standstill. The red line shows the path of the aircraft after it touches down prematurely on the grass within the runway safety area .

Captain Peter Burkill only radioed an emergency call to the control tower a few seconds before the impact, before there had been no signs of an emergency on the plane. David Learmount, a journalist for Flight International , wrote that "the aircraft had either a complete or severe loss of propulsion and that it happened very late on the approach because the pilot did not have time to tell air traffic control or passengers." It was speculated that, due to the weather conditions, wind shear was the cause of the machine sagging. Which applied at the time of the accident flight weather report METAR predicted the ICAO determinations in accordance with possible gusts; however, at the time of the accident, neither gusts nor wind shear were registered.

Flight captain Peter Burkill said at a press conference that he would not speak publicly about the incident while the AAIB was still investigating. However, he said that first officer John Coward piloted the aircraft during the approach.

A preliminary report from the AAIB found that the aircraft had failed thrust at an altitude of approximately 600 feet from the ground and approximately two nautical miles from the point of touchdown and as a result it failed had sunk quickly. It then grazed the ground about 300 meters from the start of the paved runway. The impact occurred near stop NB1, which leads from runway 27L to taxiway N.

The initial theories about the cause expanded into different areas. Because both engines failed to comply with a thrust request, a mechanical engine failure is not considered to be the cause, since the simultaneous failure of both engines is unlikely.

The possibility of a bird strike was considered. At the time of the accident, however, there were no corresponding observations. The assumption that the middle tank could have been iced up prompted the airlines United Airlines and American Airlines to take measures to ensure the quality of the fuel used.

A month after the incident, investigative authorities announced that there was "no evidence of mechanical failure, bird strike or icing" and that there was "no evidence of fuel contamination or abnormally high water content" and that there were "no abnormalities in the important systems of the aircraft ” . However, the report pointed to cavitation in both high pressure fuel pumps, indicating a limitation in fuel supply, although the manufacturer noted that both pumps could still provide full fuel flow. The report noted that the aircraft had flown through extremely cold air masses on its journey, but those temperatures were not low enough to freeze the fuel.

As a result, speculation is focused on electronics and fuel supply. The failure of the software or electronics that controlled the engines was a common theory. The daily The Guardian quoted on January 19, an anonymous source, after an engine pressure ratio -Messinstrument had failed and that automatic alerting the pilots had not come across this problem.

An error in the electronic system of the aircraft could have led to an interruption of the connection between the control by the automatic and manual control elements and the two engines. It has also been speculated that radio interference from the wail of the prime minister's motorcade may have caused the failure. However, these two theories were ruled out by the May 12th investigative bulletin.

Ice crystals clog the fuel-oil heat exchanger of a Trent 800, (Image: NTSB)

The AAIB bulletin of May 12 also ruled out wind shear as the cause of the crash landing. The investigations are now concentrating on the cause of the cavitation in the high-pressure pumps of both engines, which indicates an extraordinarily low pressure on the supply lines.

The preliminary investigation report by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch finally states that the most likely cause was that ice in the fuel system that supplies the engines with fuel was responsible for the accident. One of the NTSB published on 11 March 2009 Safety recommendation that this incident and another engine power loss of a 777-200ER of Delta Airlines has on 26 November 2008 on the subject, considered possible Eisanlagerungen in the fuel / oil heat exchangers Fuel / Oil Heat exchangers (FOHE) of the Trent 800 engines are considered critical, as the fuel-side blockage of the heat exchangers with ice crystals means that the amount of fuel is insufficient for the thrust required by the pilots.

Disruption of flight operations

Outgoing flights were delayed. Because the fire brigades were on duty as a result of the accident, there was no adequate protection for the rest of the airport. Because of this, flight operations at the airport were temporarily stopped completely. All short haul flights and some long haul flights were canceled for the rest of the day. Otherwise there were delays of up to 1½ hours, since runway 27L was initially closed. Twenty-four incoming flights were diverted to Gatwick , Luton or Stansted . By the evening of January 17, 221 flights had been canceled. The Ministry of Transport issued an exemption from the night flight ban .

On January 18, 113 short-haul flights were canceled because crews and aircraft were not at the planned locations. The wreck of the machine was loaded onto a low-loader by two truck-mounted cranes and then transported away on January 20th.

Similar incidents

On February 27, 2008, a pilot of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300 noticed two knocks in the engines. The warning "Engine Turbine Overspeed" appeared on the instrument panel. The plane then landed at Moscow Domodedovo Airport without any problems .

One day later, the left engine of an American Airlines Boeing 777-200 did not respond to the pilots' thrust request. It took about 10 to 15 seconds for the engine to accelerate.

filming

In 2011 the accident was re-enacted as The Heathrow Enigma in English as the second episode of season 10 and as The Miracle of London in the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit .

Web links

Individual evidence

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  2. ^ A b Report on the accident to Boeing 777-236ER, G-YMMM, at London Heathrow Airport on January 17, 2008. Air Accidents Investigation Branch , 2010, accessed March 8, 2015 .
  3. a b AAIB Bulletin S1 / 2008 SPECIAL. Air Accidents Investigation Branch , February 18, 2008, accessed February 18, 2008 .
  4. Gordon Brown just 25ft from death at Heathrow crash. (No longer available online.) Mirror.co.uk , January 18, 2008, archived from the original January 21, 2008 ; accessed on March 27, 2019 .
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  15. BA 777 report this weekend. (No longer available online.) In: Business Travel News & Advice. ABTN, January 18, 2008; archived from the original on January 21, 2008 ; Retrieved January 18, 2008 : " flight and cabin crew [who] did a magnificent job and safely evacuated all of the 136 passengers. The captain of the aircraft is one of our most experienced and has been flying with us for nearly 20 years. Our crew are trained to deal with these situations. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abtn.co.uk
  16. Official Radar / ATC Release of British Airways 777 Crash, BA038, Jan 2008 on YouTube
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  23. ^ A b Accident to Boeing 777-236, G-YMMM at London Heathrow Airport on January 17, 2008 - Initial Report. (No longer available online.) AAIB , Jan. 18, 2008, archived from the original on Jan. 21, 2008 ; Retrieved on January 20, 2008 : " Initial indications from the interviews and flight recorder analyzes show the flight and approach to have progressed normally until the aircraft was established on late finals for Runway 27L. At approximately 600 ft and 2 miles from touch down, the autothrottle demanded an increase in thrust from the two engines but the engines did not respond. Following further demands for increased thrust from the autothrottle, and subsequently the flight crew moving the throttle levers, the engines similarly failed to respond. The aircraft speed reduced and the aircraft descended onto the grass short of the paved runway surface. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aaib.gov.uk
  24. 'No thrust' on knitting BA plane. British Broadcasting Corporation, January 18, 2008, accessed January 18, 2008 .
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  26. ^ A b Hunt for fatal flaw of Flight 38. The Times , January 20, 2008, accessed December 15, 2010 .
  27. ^ United, American Plan Safety Push After Icing Linked to British Crash. Wall Street Journal , February 12, 2008, accessed February 13, 2008 .
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  30. ^ PM's car did not cause jet crash. British Broadcasting Corporation , May 12, 2008, accessed May 13, 2008 .
  31. AAIB Bulletin S3 / 2008 SPECIAL. (No longer available online.) AAIB , May 12, 2008, archived from the original on July 6, 2008 ; Retrieved December 15, 2010 : “ There is no evidence of a wake vortex encounter, a bird strike or core engine icing. There is no evidence of any anomalous behavior of any of the aircraft or engine systems that suggests electromagnetic interference. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aaib.gov.uk
  32. FliegerRevue November 2008, p. 13, "Ice in fuel made engines freeze"
  33. Safety recommendation of the NTSB of March 11th, 2009 on the problem of ice deposits in the fuel / oil heat exchangers of the Trent 800 engine
  34. Latest on Heathrow travel problems. British Broadcasting Corporation , January 18, 2008, accessed January 18, 2008 .
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