All Engines Fail on Final Approach to London | Falling Fast (With Real Audio)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2023
- Find out why both engines of the Boeing 777 operating as flight 38 failed while on final approach to London Heathrow.
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This video has been recorded and edited in 4K resolution and 60FPS. - บันเทิง
As a retired pilot for Lufthansa with 27500 ours of flying, my hats off to Peter for a quick and critical decision of retracting the flaps. Lives were saved. That's our #1 priority as a pilot.
You forgot to mention the Captain was sacked by BA after a lot of rumours and backstabbing from employees and management after a few years Peter Burkill was reinstated by BA just before he took them to tribunal which BA would have lost. Disgraceful way to treat a man who saved all the lives by retracting the flaps to 25.
I agree. He did his best and saved the situation from becoming a lot worse. It should have been BA management who were sacked.
I didn't know that. At least on the face of it, that's disgraceful. Bad call BA.
What do you expect from a budget airliner trading on past glories.
Sounds like he got the Middle East airline treatment
I'd expected a flaps retraction much earlier and more aggressive.
But anyways it turns out, the engine manufacturer was at fault. I can imagine he was still trying to adhere to company procedures, he would have had a hard time justifying flaps retraction on approach which he was entitled and completely justified to do.
I worked with the Captain of this flight a couple of times years later (I was cabin crew for BA) and he was very open to talking about it when I asked. I was familiar with the incident and the debate over the flaps decision. He made a choice that saved potentially hundreds of lives, and is a hero. He wrote a book about it if you'd like the full story.
do you think further retracting the flaps would have made the plane travel a bit further before impact, potentially reaching the runway?
@@ImperialDiecast : The further the flaps are retracted, the higher the aircraft's stalling speed becomes, and the faster the aircraft loses altitude at low power, right? So retracting the flaps further makes the aircraft fly a little faster, but also increases the chance of a stall if the extra bit of speed isn't enough to reach the runway.
@@ImperialDiecast As I'm not a pilot I'm not really qualified to answer that question, however with minimal thrust it's unlikely they would have made the runway whatever they did. If the flaps had been left alone they may have stalled, further reducing flaps would have lost some lift but gained speed, so it's a fine balancing act. I assume Peter Burkill wrote about this topic is his book, but admittedly I never got around to reading it as I'd had a conversation with the man himself. It was years ago now so I can't recall the specifics of our conversation unfortunately.
@@ImperialDiecast No doubt. Drag flap does mostly that.
Wow! I will get it thanks
This incident was highlighted in an episode of 'Mayday'. The Captain stated he did not take control of the aircraft at a critical juncture because the CoPilot was doing a fantastic job at that time. When the Captain reduced the flaps he stated it was through instinct which proved to be spot on.... OUTSTANDING JOB by everyone involved!😎
In a few words: Fully experienced trained pilots who prevented a real tragedy.
And subsequently being sacked by board member vultures.
@@erikkz he wasn't
@@chendaforest read into it
@@erikkz I have and he wasn't. He continued to fly for BA and later took voluntary redundancy, before coming back to them as a Captain.
@@erikkz8
The stick shaker and "PULL UP" warning are two things you generally don't want happening at the same time
At least the co-pilot listened to the stick shaker and not the "pull up" command and instead lowered the nose or they would have stalled.
Oh both pilots saved hundreds that day for sure
LOL no! That’s rather like getting the over speed warning and the stick shaker at the same time.
You only want one. 😅
Especially when you're driving your car...
Good job with this video as usual. It's noteworthy that initially, nobody knew who to blame for the accident so it seemed as though the pilot was coming under fire for this accident at first. I watched the documentary on this particular crash and it evidently took investigators a while to figure out exactly what went wrong. As I remember it, supposedly the pilot adjusting the flaps at the last second is the only thing that got the airplane over those last few buildings before the runway. Later on after investigators uncovered the defect, the pilot became a hero.
And BA very kindly sacked him
Idk, seems that he only trimmed when he should have been reduced the angle a lot. Take it from me, Capitan Hindsight.
Yep, this video doesnt mention it but the ice had disappeared and it took months for investigator to figure out what happened and a lot of effort and tries to replicate it as the conditions are very very specifics.
The accident happened on 17 February; the report was released on 18 February.
@@karpizan nothing like loyalty!
That flight crew saved lives through their good airmanship, extending the glide of that aircraft beyond the buildings and obstacles ahead for the rwy threshold. I think the Captain and his team are heroes.
They used the only option available, reducing flap angle to 25 !!!
That simple flap change definitely saved lives. Kudos also to the co-pilot for fighting instinct and pushing the nose down when the stick shaker activated and knowing you’re so close to the ground, still the right idea and far better than falling out of the air uncontrollably.
I’m surprised the ATC controller didn’t get more credit , even able to advise the captain of making a wrong transmission on the frequency. Kudos to him
ATC at Heathrow are renowned for their efficiency and friendly helpful attitude.
If an aircraft is ready to leave early, they get clearance to taxi and ATC will often find them an earlier slot. With only 2 runways and a take off or landing every 40 seconds at peak times, ATC are a vital part of the operation.
Many regular users of the airport are on Christian name terms with the controllers, many who have been at the airport for decades.
Needless to say, arrogant or rude pilots soon get put in their place.
A friend of ours who was the chief pilot for a major airline, always commented on their efficiency and friendliness.
A friend of
All of them were very matter of fact, which is what you have to be when describing what has happened to all parties so no misunderstandings.
And Heathrow is a very busy airport of course.
@@zakelwe On a clear winter night in parts of south west London, you can look up and see the lights of 5 aircraft heading in.
In the past, when you saw a gap, you expected the sudden roar of Concord heading in.
I was told that based on movements per runway. Heathrow is the worlds busiest commercial airport.
For safety reasons, the landing route over London largely follows the line of the river Thames.
This also gives a route over low terrain.
They're massive unsung hero's aren't they. Not only do they have to get emergency services to the incident they've gotta divert other planes to another runway or airport and god knows what else all at the same time. Couldn't do it myself. Fair play to them
This one left me speechless. The presentation and video sequence were top notch. TFC never dissapoints!
Great channel! Former USAF flightline guy here. This channel always does the story justice.
Water in your fuel tanks sucks for cars. Water in your fuel system sucks even more for jets. Lessons.
If my memory serves me right , we used to call it , ‘pinking’, causing the exhaust to cough and splutter .lol
Retracting flaps to 25 reduced the drag just enough to make it to the grass. If they hadn’t made that it would have been straight on to houses and a main road.
Sadly the pilot was used as a scapegoat until the true cause was known.
Why was that BA?
He was reinstated and hailed as a hero after investigation. BA just sucks.
They had to blame somebody for the event and the pilot was handy.
Reducing flaps to 20 is SOP in these circumstances.
If the pilot is dead = pilot error.
If the pilot is alive = pilot error and a firing.
If the cause was BA's fuel handling methods, this man would still be fired and the cause would never be known.
This was an amazing save by a skilled crew. Quick thinking saved them from disaster. I spent a lot of time driving around Heathrow at that time, and that plane was sat on the ground next to 27L for ages
how long is ages?
@@javison_4 Well over 6 months, possibly a year. It was sat in an area just off the runway. I'd drive past it daily while doing delivery runs around the airport
must have been horrifying for the pilots, losing control so close to landing! Thankfully they made it to the grass.. it was incredibly close
Since during the final moments, they were actually falling in an aerodynamic stall, making it to the concrete of the runway may have actually caused more damage to the aircraft and added to the risk of fire.
The animation in the video had no program for the final seconds, but the aircraft hit the ground fairly hard.
it was incredibly close to the highway! that was tense
This really is only half the story. Air Crash Investigation did an excellent episode on this, focussing mostly on the investigation. The ice had disappeared before the plane was examined, so at first nobody knew exactly what happened - it was a complete mystery. BA did what BA usually does; they scapegoated the pilot and fired him, despite the fact that his gutsy flaps-up call probably saved the lives of everyone on the plane and quite a few people on the ground.
It took **years** for the investigators to finally recreate the condition of the fuel flow blockage, because it took an extremely specific set of conditions, such as cold fuel, the presence of water contamination at a certain level, warming the fuel at a specific rate, AND the design of the exchanger; the exchanger had very tiny-bore pipes in it and no preheater, so it was easily blocked by ice. Nobody had - or *could have* - predicted that ice would be a problem in the first place. It was a very well hidden bug in the entire fuel system, and it stuck with absolutely zero warning at the worst possible time. Total engine failure during final approach is almost always catastrophic and it was a blunt miracle that nobody was killed.
The solution was actually very simple: Increase the bore of the pipes in the exchanger and add a preheater using hot oil. That would quickly break up any ice that accumulated, and the increased pipe diameter would quickly push the ice through the exchanger to be melted.
The pilot got a happy ending, at least, being well compensated and eventually hailed as the hero he was, and the entire crew awarded the BA Safety Medal, their highest honour.
Yep, that's the British way. Why investigate something properly when you can just conveniently scapegoat some unfortunate fall guy and make it all go away? Management, government, public services like the NHS, police and education... it's SOP and it means nothing ever really gets fixed. Luckily the FAA were on the ball in this case.
@@rich_edwards79 When there was a second incident (fortunately at higher altitude, where recovery was possible), the FAA decided that the 777 had a lethal systematic fuel problem, and only luck had kept it from resulting in a catastrophic crash. So the NTSB was put to work. It is a rare case where the actual planes were useless because the problem *disappeared* shortly after the incident! So they had to build a model of the entire fuel system of the engine and test every variable they could think of, one at a time, under every conceivable condtiion. Only years of trial and error and sheer dogged persistence finally forced that particular little cockroach into the light, and once the NTSB figured out WHAT the bug was, correcting it was a matter of redesigning a single part! It was one of the NTSB's finest hours.
Scapegoating is so much easier, but it would have eventually killed 300+ people had that bug gone uncorrected. This was a case where it was *nobody's* fault - except Murphy and his law.
The real problem with the heat exchanger was a manufacturing issue. The tubes extended beyond the faceplate on the flow side. As a result, small ice crystals collected on the faceplate, rather than enter the tubes. As this built up, the protruding tips of the tubes got colder, until the whole thing slushed up and blocked.
It was never released, whether this was a design or manufacturing fault, but most heat exchangers have their tubes swaged flush with the faceplate.
I did not hear that the tube diameter had been increased, increasing the flow may have put the engines at risk from small residual ice crystals.
@@rich_edwards79 Totally agree. The British are a complete global disgrace these days from the BBC to the Army. And I'm British!
The captain wasn't fired! He continued to fly for BA and then took voluntary redundancy and later came back to BA at the same seniority level. It was the AAIB (not FAA) which uncovered the cause of the problem. I wish people would check their facts rather than just go on these self-righteous rants.
I was in London at that day and i saw the wrackage. This pilot is an extraodinary good and qualified flyer. He should recieve the highest medal of honour of the United Kingdom.
Unfortunately in the UK mostly the morally reprehensible get OBEs etc.
Outstanding graphics and sound. It's refreshing to see a video where the pilots did everything well. Incredible good luck that this happened only at the very end of the flight. 😯
Agreed!
One of my best shifts ever. I can remember it so clearly.
I was at 3rd site and assisted at the rear Right door.
Then manned the RVP until relieved.
Then had great fun marshalling all the aircraft into strange areas and holding positions as there were no gates available.
Events like this are why I love my job.
i don't think you should use the word fun when talking about a plane crash
I thought that too, but when you train for years and get to work as a team, noone is killed and its a sucess story its. ok. But who am I to say to someone they should think a certain way. @@javison_4
For real ! What type of moronic idiot would do that ? It's like gave a blast lol 😂 at the funeral ! There's always a numbskull when you don't want one.
Thanks, excellent video as always, I remember it well. The Pilots earned their money, they were faced with an unknown problem at a crucial time, needing split second decisions to try and nurse the plane home, they almost made it, they did however prevent a major catastrophe and prevented crashing into a populated area.
They made it inside the airport perimeter and near the runway threshold, so technically the flight made it. And no one died, so..."We're here!" Welcome to London Heathrow! Please exit the nearest emergency slides!
Thank you to all the aerospace engineers that make our trips safer.
I am Thankful everyone survived.
There are many things to take into consideration building an airplane. Anything that's overlooked, no matter how small, costs lives.
I am not.
I had an actual panic attack watching the ending; I'm prone to them, but I've never had one from watching a video. The Flight Channel always has me on the proverbial edge of my seat. Whew, I'm so happy that there were no casualties.
When the plane got so close to the houses I was freaking out too. Thank God the pilot reduced flaps for a little extra glide.
It's good to watch a video on this channel once in a while that doesn't have an 'in memory of' at the end credits.
What a nightmare. Even if they were clairvoyant, the flight crew still couldn't remedy this problem. Even the maintenance techs didn't check for this problem since it wasn't even identified yet as a checklist item. It was by sheer luck and some skillful maneuvering by the crew that allowed for survivability.
No intro, just right into the story. Second half explaining clearly WHY it happened. Very well done TFC!
TheFlightChannel man, i just love your videos. Ive been watching you for 3+ years now, keep it up man!👍
Edit: One of your best videos in my opinion.
I’ll second that..
Glad to recreated this crash with more detail this time! The p rofessionality of the crew and ATC are admirable
Excellent, TFC! Very well done! And thanks for the upper and lower case text.
I remember this show. It's very fortunate that the airplane landed in good condition. This problem with icing that later melted away may never have been solved. Very good episode!!
I seem to recall at the time, that there were also issues with the water content of the fuel. A small amount of water in the fuel, caused the freezing.
I'm pretty impressed by the fact that you were able to perfectly depict the dirty jet bridge marks and fuselage in this video 😂. Nice and accurate for the BA B772s.❤
It's called downloading a BA 777 aircraft model for Microsoft Flight Sim. 😂
The co-pilot pushing forward on the yoke probly saved everyone as well as the captain retracting flaps! That is difficult to do in that situation great job 👏 excellent video as well!
Once they were in this position there was very little they could have done besides the slight flap retraction. Most anything else would have resulted in a stall. It would be interesting to try other scenarios in the simulator but I don't see anything that would have made things better and a lot of things that would have made things far worse. Great work by the pilots there!
Hi Flight Channel, Happy Thursday to you!! man, I always love watching your video's as their just so real looking it's F'N awesome!! y'all take care and have a awesome weekend!!
Also critical to mention that a much bigger disaster was diverted by the captains quick decision to change the flap setting
From all the past episodes of emergency landings by the British Airways ,I am super impressed by their pilot's skills & determinations !!! As well as their skills to land against crosswinds & wind shears !! 👏👏👏💜🥁🐉🎤🎶✈️🇬🇧💞
Beautifully done, @TFC!
Great video the cover screen was very detailed good job tfc
I feel the Captain and F/O performed an amazing feat of airmanship that saved hundreds of lives, both in the plane and on the ground. The Captain should have been awarded a citation from BA instead of receiving the harsh treatment. Nothing he practiced or studied for could have prepared him for the emergency situation he was presented. Kudos, Capt. Burkill!!!
That was amazing! So glad no one died! I thought for sure they were going to come down on that community, or even the street with vehicles traveling! Freezing temperatures and ice have certainly caused a lot of plane crashes. Good work by the flight crew to manage it without any casualties. Thank you for another great presentation and I want to add I really appreciated the new font you are using. It's so much easier to read.
I am really happy and glad that you cleared up my anxiety about what happened after the accident.
Perfect video, mate. Respect and thanks very much.
Amazing quality!
The ATC audio was amazing and probably the first time it has all been clear enough to understand. Is that a Heathrow thing because most are a scrambled noise? You can understand them but only just. A brilliant video as always.
I like watching these before my flights.
Great graphics! The rooftops and houses of London are just sensationally realistic. ☺️👏👍
Heathrow is surrounded by industrial units and roads today, houses can't be built that close, due to earlier noise abatement laws.
Excellent bit of flying. Well done
great video! glad there were no casualties (i think)
I think I remember this story from Mayday: Air Disaster. No one died-yay! Great video.
This is a classic case of the very fine balance between the aerodynamic coefficients of drag, aerofoil lift and thrust/speed...and having to think rapidly and clearly at short notice at a fast shrinking critical time. That fast analytical thinking (and decision making) of the captain presented with the loss of power at a critical time saved the flight and lives from a total catastrophe. Well Done!
(2:01) Jet A-1 kerosine grade of fuel is suitable for most turbine engined aircraft. It has a flash point minimum of 38 degrees C (100°F) and a freeze point maximum of -47 degrees C.
(10:59) FOHE (fuel oil heat exchanger) is a CRUCIAL component in aircraft propulsion systems. It is supposed to (and designed to) efficiently manage the temperature of fuel/fuel oil before it enters the combustion process.
(11:25) AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the UK, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. AAIB works with the UK Department for Transport.
Speedbird is made of solid steel! What a sturdy plane!
It’s Britisch Airways, what did you expect ? 😎
@@howmathematicianscreatemat9226 more like a Boeing 777, one of the best airplane in the sky
How terrifying it must have been pushing the throttles forward and getting absolutely no response from the engines. With no warnings or malfunction indicators, they were at a total loss as to why the plane wasn't responding. Under those circumstances, I'd say they did a damn fine job keeping that thing in the air as long as they did and getting it down without any loss of life.
Hell yeah.
It's not often people walk away in these videos.
Gj to the crew for keeping a cool head and saving the day.
And a RIP to all that did the same but weren't lucky enough to have the same outcome. Be honest, these people are made of something different when S hits the fan and they keep going right to the bitter end.
I keep watching this channel right up until I have to fly and I seem to also watch shark attack videos before I go to the beach.
Very professional and effective ATC!
Ah good. It wasn't the pilots or anyone else's fault, the pilots handled it beautifully, and everyone lived. Good story
Maybe it should have been required to fly a different way so freezing jet fuel would not happen.
High altitude flying saves the airline company money on fuel.@@wanaraz
@@wanarazBut, the jet fuel didn't freeze. The small amount of water in the fuel froze. I would have thought that water in fuel tanks would not be that unusual over time. The manufacturer should have have anticipated, with solutions provided before planes started falling out of the sky.
@@williamromine5715 The water was in the jet fuel right? LOL Yeah maybe the purity should have better control. But they did suggest they could take another route right?
@@wanarazFuel handling at the airport where it was last refueled was the culprit.
It's known that a small amount of water dissolves into jet fuel, it's not usually a problem.
However, the water had built up in the fuel tank, and the fuel in the tanks had fallen so low, that the fuel on this flight had more water than usual, AND the temperature and lack of vibration / movement of the plane meant the ice built up until it became enough to block the fuel intercooler / heater at the moment they needed more fuel.
That Pilot has saved SO many lifes, only skill and calmness made them get this far, otherwise it would have looked very different
Best short Landing/ditch ever
Thank providence and those excellent pilots for saving the day and I think the universe collectively spits on BA for not supporting such amazing people …god bless us all
Pretty quick and clear ATC transmissions and by rescue. Kudos to the pilots as well, and for that last second Mayday transmission to get ATC fully aware of an imminent incident.
Amazing footage!
i live in the UK and remember this one well; the fault could not have occurred at a worse time. when the cause was discovered I was surprised, i don't think anyone ever thinks about fuel freezing (or rather water in the fuel freezing and then thawing), planes routinely fly high in very cold temperatures and above polar regions in winter with no problems at all.
This is why we won the battle of Britain... excellent flying, nerves of steel and lighting fast decisions.
The editing on the thumbnail looked amazing!
Great video.👍
Brilliant cinematics!
Excellent response by the crew. That decision to reduce flaps almost certainly saved a lot of lives.
Reducing flaps for such a landing is SOP.
The failure was due to ice forming in the hydraulic control system - as the ice melted after the aircraft ‘landed’, it took BA over 1 year to establish the cause.
I researched this incident as part of my thesis for a BSc (Hons) Aerospace Medicine.
Sis you researched it but got the wrong system. Nothing to do with the hydraulic system. 🤡
In the fuel system: the tanks on the origin airport, the tanks in the plane, the fuel lines, the heaters, filters and intercoolers that deliver fuel to the engines at the right temperature and quantity.
Hydraulics usually control the movement of other items, like the flying surfaces, the undercarriage, and cargo doors.
Excellent video and synopsis of the cause of this accident.
Brilliant but the way the found the cause was amazing.
Wow! Great animations! Do you use a certain app for it?
Great job recreating this event…
Si basically the Fuel Oil Heat Exchanger was modified and changed on all engines to correct the freezing problems in the fuel lines.
The thumbnail was literally just Asiana Airlines Crash but bri’ish 😂😂😂😂
Great job captain
Excellent Video!!! Without retracting the flaps, they wouldn´t make it. Great pilots.
Great video and graphics!!! Oddly enough, even though I am not an engineer, my first thought upon seeing the temperatures of the outside air during the the flight and the point in altitude as to when the engine problems started, my first thought was the fuel did not freeze but the water condensation in the fuel was likely going to be the cause of failure.
I was correct.
Damn i was watching your same video on the same title on which was released 5 years ago !!
I do not know why, I think my feelings go against statistics what is most secure way to travel, but I feel more secure on a boat even in stormy weather on the sea than in an airplane in the air... ✈ ⛵
*losing air speed the engines are on Idle* Copilot and Captain "Fuck it, keep the flaps fully extended, causing more air speed to bleed we don't need to land on the runway at all, we bing chilling." Genius.
SUPER high pucker factor out of the pilot's control, awesome that they squeaked it in...barely.
I like that the Captain responded to the Tower systems with "ta" lol, I just wanted to point that out
Great video! I’m confused about why the slush would melt on the fuel heat transfer unit?
Wonderfully recounted TFC, and great to hear the 777 made it "safely" to the ground after all.
Great Captain
Nice video, and no the captain wasn't fired or scapegoated as a lot of people seem to be claiming in the comments.
Its great you finally upgraded you PC enough to run MSFS2020 without stutters, lol.
Same happened a couple of years ago. Also with a BAA aircraft. There is always condensation and that causes dangerous situations.
No it didn’t.
When I saw that they were going to manage landing inside the airport, I was relieved.
Powerful engines. Powerful flight, 10/10.
Quality crew
Just to be clear, it was the co-pilot/first officer that was the pilot-flying, not the captain. The captain understood that the co-pilot was doing a good job and left him to it. It would have been difficult to swap control at such a critical moment. Both pilots did a sterling job in bringing the plane in without injuries and is attributed to both their skills and experience.
Us British really do have the best pilots
So, I have been watching your videos for quite some time, and here are some that i am requesting that you add.
Day 4.
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise flight 612
Korean airlines 858
1983 Chosonminhang Ilyushin Il-62 crash
TAN 414
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 9560
Ural Airlines Flight 178
Libyan Arab airlines flight 114
Libyan Arab airline flight 1103
TWA 800 (Not the one that crashed in New York, but the one that crashed in Italy)
Kenya airways flight 431
Aero flight 311
LOT Polish airlines flight 007
LOT Polish airlines flight 5055
Delta airlines flight 723
World airways flight 30
Eastern airlines flight 375
Air Greenland 3275
Ariania airlines 701
Air Canada 621
Vnukovo flight 2801
UT air 120
UTA 772
United airlines flight 227
I’ve been following you for some time now and here are some requests I have of you.
Stop picking your nose
Start using your turn signal
Thank you.
Aw aw aw what about TransBrasil 303,801 and VASP 168
@@andrewilliamcesardossantos1555 I forgot about those, lol
@@aviationreid e XD
Finally! Finally! Sweden Finally being noticed on this channel!
Thank God Everyone Survived!
Those are some frosty fuel pipes for sure, so glad that didn't end in a ball of flames!
Sometimes, you have to trust your gut instincts and not panic. I wouldn't think that much water could get into the fuel.
Imagine a go around request from ATC, because of some stuck aircraft on the runway :)
Whoever made the thumbnail needs an oscar