| British Airways Flight 9 |
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British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the '''Jakarta incident''',1 was a scheduled British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Auckland , with stops in Bombay , Madras , Kuala Lumpur , Perth and Melbourne . On 24 June , 1982 , the route was flown by ''City of Edinburgh'', a 747-200 registered . The aircraft flew into a cloud of Volcanic Ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung , resulting in the failure of all four engines, although the reason for the failure was not then apparent to the crew or ground control. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely. INCIDENT The first sign of anything amiss occurred shortly after 13:40 GMT (20:40 Jakarta time) above the Indian Ocean, south of Java, when Senior First Officer Roger Greaves and Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman noticed an effect on the windscreen similar to St. Elmo's Fire , as if it were being hit by Tracer Bullets . The phenomenon persisted after Captain Eric Moody, who had left the Cockpit to use the Lavatory , returned. Despite seeing nothing on the Weather Radar , they switched on engine anti-ice and the passenger seat belt signs as a precaution. In the passenger cabin, smoke started gathering in the air. At first it was assumed to be cigarette smoke, but as it grew thicker, alarm spread. Those looking out windows also noticed that the engines were unusually bright, as if they each had a headlight in them, shining forward through the fan blades and producing a Stroboscopic Effect .2 At approximately 13:42 GMT (20:42 Jakarta time), engine no. four surged and then Flamed Out . The first officer and flight engineer immediately performed the engine shutdown drill, shutting off fuel and arming fire extinguishers as the Captain added some rudder to counter the uneven thrust. The passengers also spotted long yellow glows coming out of the remaining engines. Less than a minute after the first engine failed, engine two surged and flamed out. Before the flight crew could begin the engine failure drills, engines one and three shut down almost simultaneously. The flight engineer exclaimed, "I don't believe it – all four engines have failed!" The 747 had now become a glider. A 747 can glide 15 kilometres for every kilometre it loses in height.Episode "Falling from the Sky" from the TV series '' to the local Air Traffic Control authority, stating that all four engines had shut down, but Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, believing that only engine number four had shut down. It was only after a Garuda Indonesia flight relayed that the message got through. The loss of power was immediately obvious to the passengers, and they reacted to it in many different ways. Some became resigned, while others wrote notes to their loved ones, such as Charles Capewell's "Ma. In trouble. Plane going down. Will do best for boys. We love you. Sorry. Pa XXX" scrawled on the cover of his ticket wallet. Some passengers cried out that they were going to die, and still others attempted to calm down the more panicky ones. On the flight deck the crew attempted to contact Jakarta for radar assistance, but could not be seen by Jakarta, despite their Transponder being set to 7700, the international "general emergency" code. Due to the high Indonesian mountains, an altitude of at least 11,500 ft was required to cross the coast safely. Captain Moody decided that, if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they reached 12,000 ft, he would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch. The crew began the engine restart drills, despite being well above the recommended maximum engine inflight start envelope altitude of 28,000 ft, but they were unsuccessful. Despite the lack of time, Captain Moody made an announcement that has been described as "a masterpiece of Understatement ": At 13,500 ft, the flight crew attempted one last engine restart procedure before turning for the ocean and the risky prospect of a Ditching . Although there were guidelines, no one had ever tried it in a 747 – nor have they since. Number four engine started, and at 13:56 GMT (20:56 Jakarta time), Captain Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, followed shortly by engines one and two. The crew were amazed at their change of fortune, and requested an increase in altitude to 15,000 feet to clear the high mountains.3 The engines were able to restart because one generator was still operating, thus allowing ignition of the engines. As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the tracer effect on the windscreen returned. Captain Moody throttled back, but it was too late: number two engine surged again, and had to be shut down. The crew immediately descended to 12,000 ft. At last Flight 9 approached Jakarta. Despite reports of good visibility, the crew found it difficult to see anything through the windscreen, and had to make the approach almost entirely on instruments, despite the Glideslope of the ILS being inoperative. It was, in the words of Captain Moody, "a bit like negotiating one's way up a Badger 's arse". Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights seemed to be inoperable. After landing, the flight crew then found it impossible to taxi, as glare from apron floodlights made the windscreen opaque, and ''City of Edinburgh'' had to wait for a tug to tow her in. AFTERMATH It was found that ''City of Edinburgh'''s problems had been caused by flying through a cloud of Volcanic Ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung . Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not show up on the weather radar, which is designed to pick up the drops of moisture that form clouds. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers, as well as clogging the engines. Engines one, two and three were replaced at Jakarta, as well as the windscreen, and the fuel tanks were cleared of ash that had entered them through the pressurisation ducts, contaminating the fuel and requiring that it be disposed of. After being ferried back to London, engine number four was replaced and major work was undertaken to return the aircraft to service, where some crews nicknamed it "the flying ashtray". G-BDXH also entered the '' Guinness Book Of Records '' as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft, until it was replaced by the Air Transat Flight 236 incident. Although the airspace around Mount Galunggung was closed temporarily after the accident, it was re-opened days later. It was only after a Singapore Airlines 747 was forced to shut down three of its engines while flying through the same area nineteen days later, that Indonesian authorities closed the airspace permanently and re-routed airways to avoid the area, and a watch was set up to monitor clouds of ash. |
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