Wow - those BA passengers at Heathrow were lucky today

[malaise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7194086.stm



<snip>
A passenger plane has crash-landed short of a runway at Heathrow Airport, ripping off part of its undercarriage.

All 136 passengers and 16 crew escaped from the British Airways flight BA038 from Beijing. Eighteen people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

An airport worker told the BBC the Boeing 777 pilot, named later as Peter Burkill, 43, said he had lost all power and had to glide the plane in to land.

All BA short-haul flights from Heathrow have been cancelled and others delayed.

[babylonsister]

1. Damned lucky; also lucky they were coming from Beijing, so I

imagine there wasn't a whole lot of gas left that could have caused a really big mess. :scared:

[karlrschneider]

2. I have to wonder if there was _any_ gas (fuel) left...maybe not.

...

[malaise]

3. That was the good news

Damn! the entire crew deserves high praise.

Add

[Lisa]

4. that's one enormous glider!

I've heard of a couple of other cases where jumbo jets lost fuel or power, and had to be glided in for a landing. Incredible flying.