Two of the plane’s giant wheel units were ripped from the craft during the landing and could be seen on grass near the runway. “If it had landed 200 meters (656 feet) shorter than it did, it may have hit perimeter fence and obviously some other buildings and the car park clearly we would be dealing with fatalities and obvious damage,” Cullemore said.įire trucks surrounded the Boeing 777 after it landed, spraying fire retardant foam around the aircraft.
Robert Cullemore of Aviation Economics, a London-based aviation consultancy, said the pilot kept the plane in the air long enough to prevent a disaster. Timothy Crowch, an aviation analyst with 35 years of experience as a commercial pilot, said the landing gear punched through both wings, indicating a “massive vertical impact.” That suggests a total loss of engine power may have been the cause, he said. Nothing suggested it was terror-related, Scotland Yard said. Investigators will speak to the pilots and study the plane’s flight data recorder and maintenance records to determine what caused the crash-landing at Heathrow airport, tearing the plane’s underbelly and damaging its wings. LONDON – A British Airways jet from Beijing carrying 152 people crash-landed Thursday, injuring 19 people and causing more than 200 flights to be canceled at Europe’s busiest airport.
