I'm not sure the Captain would have said "hey, we're just hanging out over here for an hour because there's a suspected Bomb on board" ... I wonder if he just said there was a technical issue with the aircraft and they need to wait for some stairs. Or at least, stick with that story until the stairs arrive, then tell them "get off quickly, there is a threat to this aircraft" .. just to stop some people (and you know there would be some!) who would be tempted to grab their luggage from the overheard "bins" 🙂
One could argue that if they honestly believed that the aircraft would explode at any moment, a crew directed passenger evacuation may have been the best course of action. …can you imagine the investigation findings, had it actually exploded? Everyone would be asking why they didn’t evacuate.
The Captain wasn't taking any chances. He said that they waited for Almost an Hour and if the Stairs didn't show up, he would have to Initiate an Emergency Evacuation of the Aircraft Using the Slides and Assembling all Passengers under the Royal Air Force C-17. ATC was overwhelmed by this and So was Speedbird 18B. Unfortunately, the Terminal had High priority but the Speedbird 18B Aircraft was the first one to receive the message. That could've been bad and this would've been Reported to the AAIB and British Airways Headquarters in London.
@@pilotpaul7347The chance of a real bomb as opposed to a hoax is small, and the risk of injury from a slide evacuation high, so I can understand the captain’s decision making here. Least risk option would be to get passengers off quickly via air stairs, which is what he was asking for and took an hour to organise 🤨
Not with arrivals stopped. Legend has it the stairs were indeed ordered from China and are aboard a plane currently looking at them from above, from the nearest holding point.
After the mayday call they don't even have to ask for takeoff clearance, but just say that they will be taking off and flying to the nearest alternate airport. Though it might be a bit ways off starting from Bermuda.
Excellent decision by the Captain to call May Day when he wasn't getting the support required. Forced them to assist instead of continuing to delay. Very professionally handled by the BA crew
Sounds like an airport desperately needs to re-evaluate their emergency procedures. The amount of time that airplane had to sit was borderline incompetence
Yeah, after she said that they were on their way, and that she did not have a metric of time, just silly qualifier statements like soon. Then, she says that they're on standby. That's the moment for me, we cross that line into incompetence, when you told me that they were on their way, and standing by, at some other place, that is not where I need them to be.
@@ivanbliminsevideolocker Maybe there was an issue with the braveness level of some people when they learned 'on their way' why they were going to the plane.
@@martinbrink6711This is well past the line of malice in my opinion. If it's taking this long, they should have told the pilot that he can evacuate using the slides.
Although ATC has no control over the availability of ramp equipment, how the airport authority took so long to dispatch stairs, irrespective of the situation at the terminal, is mind boggling.
@@VASAviationBA is typically the last flight out of BDA and the airport staff usually leave immediately after the aircraft is out of their hands, it’s pretty crazy
Notice how the BA pilot told ATC the passengers would be convening under the port wing of the C-17. This is presumably due to the port side being sheltered from the 777 by the C-17 fuselage itself, and under the wing to prevent debris raining down should there be an explosion. Great thinking by the crew!
As a rule ground services are not obliged to take steps out unless they are manned by volunteers…found this out when I had to orginisr an evacuation on a bomb threat in the 80’s in uk..
@@alanholck7995 Yeah... As a general rule, ARFF should be able to respond to an emergency on any part of the airport within 5 minutes. At least that's the rule in the U.S., though I was under the impression that it was an ICAO standard for all passenger service airports.
@@oldmanc2 Japan Airlines in Tokyo Haneda. Going up in flames and evacuating without any human losses. Bermuda: "Do you have a booking for the emergency services ?"
And it was the pilot and captain who were having to chase up the ATC for any updates, they weren't being given any realistic information about when stairs or emergency services would actually be with them or that there had been any delays. I mean, even the delay to tell them where to taxi to in order to isolate and evacuate seems ridiculous. Surely there is a documented standard plan for the threat of a bomb on a plane that the ATC should grab and follow. Obviously with the terminal evacuation that would impact upon some of the response, but at least the first part of telling them where to taxi the aircraft to have been quicker.
@@zephyrsky__Almost certainly the passengers weren't told the real reason to avoid panic - imagine what they'd be like having to wait an hour sitting above a possible bomb. The flight crew had definitely gone past eye rolling and into biting sarcasm ("and you don't have a time for that?" and regarding where the fire engines were: "there's no way of turning this aircraft around, so no, we can't see them").
That's unacceptable from the airport. Any airlines flying there should be seriously considering pausing their routes into that airport until they have a full explanation of what happened and assurances that future emergency responses will be handled more professionally. If the threat had been real, that could have been catastrophic.
@@beastlysunsuper cool. And it's also super cool that they had absolutely no knowledge of how long it takes on average for the police to get there /s. I'm not being cute, they should be doing safety drills so they know how long it is, they should be on the phone with the police going 'where are the responding cars right now'. They should be saying in their second breath 'you're on your own now, we're not going to help you' If they know the cars haven't even left the station yet and it takes them 20 minutes to get there on a good day, they can say 'it'll be at least half an hour, use the slides'. Tbh, I'm kind of shocked they didn't use the slides automatically. Like, okay some people could get hurt on them- or they could get blown up. Like wtf
Nonsense. They got off. We know this as it said they were evacuated. Legend has it they're still under the wing of a C17 having eaten their way through the slowest passengers. The stairs are still 20 minutes away.
@@ts757arse "But did he ever return, no he never returned And his fate is still unlearned He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston He's the man who never returned..."
That Captain was awesome. He realizes that if he orders an evacuation via the slides that there WILL be injuries. He pre-orders that ambulances accordingly. He wasn't far from ordering the slide evacuation.
They were incredibly patient. Perhaps too patient? If the treat is credible, I would not want to sit around waiting for close to an hour on a jet loaded with fuel and the cabin full of passengers…
@AndreSomers I agree. At which point is it justifiable to wait for "another few minutes". Im just sitting in my room listening to the Audio so who am I to judge, but I feel like they should've evacuated via slides instantly after the "I hope so"- atc call
@@Mrcl5902 100% a bomb threat is not something you just calmly wait around to see if you go boom. The pilots were absolutely incompetent. Should have immediately dropped the slides and got everybody a long way away from that aircraft.
@@horvath83 which makes sense - let's just say that this sounded like a typical phone call to majority of UK call centres - minus the potential threat scenario, obviously.
I have to say, I'm amazed the captain didn't deploy chutes much earlier (unless this sort of things happens regularly, and they are always false alarms). He was repeatedly told "on their way" with the stairs when they were clearly not on their way - and in that situation this is totally unforgivable. I think especially with it being a UK plane (or if it had been a US one) the threats need to be treated very, very seriously due to the history of terror attacks against those nations .. so yeah, unforgivable to be giving out "on our way" messages when that wasn't the case. Not blaming Tower here if they were just passing on messages, but still, someone, somewhere needs to change job - if the captain had been told initially "it'll take 45 minutes to get you some stairs" I'm sure he would have evaculated immediately.
I seem to recall an aircraft with a bomb threat called in, they told the captain to hold and when told there would be a delay for stairs, ordered the crew to pop the slides and evacuated onto the runway
Capt has to make the decision as he is commander of the a/c.. steps are only provided by apron services if they get volunteers to do so.. would have thought that BA operating manual would have told him that.. appreciate they don’t like using the chutes as the a/c would be AOG till they were repacked and checked
@@We-re.doomed123 There are almost invariably injuries from a chute evacuation. So the captain has to balance that against seriousness of the threat. Given that there was a threat against the terminal as well, and that there were no ground staff and ambulances, the passengers might have been safer where they were.
@@johnbrickel6446 Not so There was a BA plane that had inflated slides a few months ago... They were removed and the aircraft ferried to the Mx base and repaired
"Urgent need for you to stop your take off due to a bomb threat, now go over there and sit in the corner like a good lad for an hour, while we wait for the bomb to go off."
That poor controller. You could hear in her voice how frustrated she was that she had to keep telling the pilot “they’re on their way “. Heartbreaking.
Unfortunately there's not much ATC can do in this situation. We call emergency services and relay all the pertinent information of the situation to them and then they are supposed to respond. If I call them with an emergency aircraft and they are slow or delayed in response all I can do is call them again. This is on airport operations and their emergency services.
@@jangledereknow we are a very qualified cross trained bunch, our threat is “don’t make me come down there and drive it myself”. I’ll commandeer my own dang stairs, and run back for the fire engine. And the ambulance, and the shuttle bus if necessary. It’s Bermuda, probably a lovely evening for a jog.
Oh come on our sheltered housing fire alarms went off early hours of Thursday morning alarm flash in housing associations community alarm centre fire brigade comes immediately were here in a few minutes assessment made false alarm alarm reset and an less than one hour lated well infact 40 minutes later thed all gone and we could nod off if our place can respond that quick as there fifty odd people inbuilding why a well equipped airport cant do better than the airport did is beyond me
@@bunglejoy3645first of all, that’s barely decipherable… Second, a fire false alarm and a fake bomb threat are entirely different things… Thirdly, it’s harder to handle an emergency in a larger place with more people, not easier, so the size of the airport compared to your community whatever actually works against your point.
There’s one destination to avoid if their emergency response to a bomb threat is so amateurish. Non-compliant with ICAO requirements and just a circus act. Disgraceful.
Using slides (I see this being asked a lot) is inherently a high risk option. You’ll note the captain requesting ambulances for this eventuality. Friction burns, broken bones, and head injuries are common. Also the risk of crush injuries or someone pushed off the slide. It’s very much a last resort.
Thanks, i was wondering why they didn't use those! Do you believe it would've been a viable option if they knew from the start that the stairs would take an hour to arrive? I just find it hard to understand how they weigh this apparently credible threat to their lives against possible injuries.
@@SVD_NL the issue here is not knowing the credibility of the threat. Threats such as this are made all the time against aircraft. They rarely rise to the level seen here, as there’s an index for defining how credible the threat is. The pilots, not having this index or credibility told to them, are in a very difficult position trying to balance outcomes. If we think about it, had they been told ‘it’ll be an hour’ then yes, that might be a good idea. But then they keep being told 10-20 minutes, which tempts them to hold off. The information the terminal is also unsafe means stranding the passengers in a dangerous no-mans-land in potentially hot/cold conditions for several hours. Which could result in more issues. I do think their mental model would’ve been different had they heard an hour from the very start, but I also think they could’ve asked more questions about the intel and maybe called their security duty manager for an update.
It’s also possible to perform a rapid disembarkation instead of an all out evacuation, using the slides. This has been proven to be far safer than an evacuation because it is far more orderly. As an aside, the Boeing manual gives 30 minutes to divert, land and evacuate with a bomb threat in the air. I’d apply that 30 minutes to the ground scenario as well, assuming no other credible information comes from tower of BA-HQ. After that it’s the slides for me. Utterly shambolic from both ATC and BA pilots.
I was cabin crew back in the late ‘70s on 747s, several times after departure from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth if England had just beaten Australia at cricket, rugby or tiddlywinks some muppet would call in a bomb scare on our flight number. Procedure was always a discrete but thorough cabin check, toilets, galley bins and then carry on as normal to our destination, usually Singapore or Columbo if out of Perth. It was routine if a big sport event was on.
Wow... that was crazy. An hour... good thing there wasn't a bomb, or it was a very patient one. ATC can't control services so I felt sorry for the controller having to give the pilots no good information as that's all she was getting. I'm surprised the pilot didn't pop the slides much earlier, but he was definitely cool but annoyed.
what an absolute cluster. Seems the airport authority has just been collecting a paycheck for years without doing any real contingency planning/drilling.
If I was BA, I'd be asking some pretty serious questions to the airport management and strongly considering the safety factors of flying into that airport right about now.
That is a tough call for the crew. Wait for stairs and avoid injuries but risk mass casualties if it is a real threat (often these seem to be not) - or evacuate now via slides with injuries, aircraft disabled but avoid mass casualties.
Ok I get that you’re evacuating the terminal, likely on a skeleton shift. I get that the emergency crews have to stay back until the aircraft is cleared by bomb squad if that’s their procedure. I get that the tower is dealing with a lot. But is it really that hard a request to get someone to drive a set of steps to the aircraft in less than half an hour?
could be wrong but my impression is people are being held back by some authority (or maybe didn't want to go). It's not a trivial thing to approach a plane with a potential bomb on it
I imagine that the ground crew were evacuating the same time the terminal was, so you would have to find, organize, and coordinate the ground crew to get those stairs.
Man what an incredible delay! I understand that a threat against the terminal building diverted a lot of resources, but they didn’t need marshalers and airsteps to evacuate the terminal. Sounds like a lot of confusion over priorities, and attempts to secure the safety of ground personnel at the expense of passengers and flight crew. I do hope BA will be polling every airport they use for their procedures for this kind of thing, that was wholly unacceptable!
I highly commend the pilot for being insistent, taking control , and showing concern for his passengers. Emergency procedures have to be evaluated at this location. Also training.
That must’ve been a long hour for those pilots, knowing that if the threat was credible it could have happened at anytime. Kudos to them for staying so calm
@@horvath83 - the alternate is a relatively slow disembarkation using the slides, not a full blown panic evacuation. This is an option in the bomb on board checklist.
@@EdOeuna There is always a risk of panic when slides are involved, telling passengers to stay calm because it is just a bomb threat probably won’t work either…
well, if they had actually said that, it would have been useful as the captain would have deployed the slides immediately. The fact that atc kept saying it was on its way made it much worse.
I've listened to it a couple of times, and to me it sounds like he actually asked "have you got stairs in place?" rather than "...in sight" as the subtitles say.
I like the part where the controller explains that the firebrigade is not allowed to approach the aircraft as there is a bomb threat. So many brave people at this airport...
The fire fighters probably don't have training in bomb threat evaluation and ordnance disposal. That's why they were required to remain clear until the police dealt with the threat. It doesn't have anything to do with lack of bravery. Sending in folks without proper training will only make things worse.
They don't do things that they are not trained for wether they are there or not. And I sure hope they are trained to help evacuate planes. How does the controller send stairs and marshaller when they are on their own knowing the fireservice will not come? It's like looking for volunteers stepping forward and everybody takes a step back.
Things never change. Very similar happened in Budapest, aircraft diverted there, informed them half an hour before. They eventually evacuated after the hopeless waiting.
While there may be lapses in handling this emergency, the controller has no fault for this because at that point, she's just a messenger who can only relay information to the pilots, she can't do anything else maybe except tell the marshallers, stairs and firemen that the pilots want them to hurry up but if they don't, then the controller can't do anything.
Imagine being an airstairs driver: "We need you to drive the stairs up to the aircraft with a bomb threat. Bob won't do it, and ARFF's safety procedures don't allow them to approach." Was BAW18B on their own from the start?
In a recent sim session with an inflight bomb scare we were briefed that US unions refuse to let their members approach aircraft if there is a bomb scare, so the general rule is that you’re on your own and have to decide how real the risk is. Big airlines have security departments that assess this sort of stuff all the time. Maybe the pilots already knew it was a hoax which is why they were so laid back by the scenario.
@@EdOeunathey were not by any means laid back. The captain asking for updates every few minutes and growing increasingly agitated was the pilot equivalent of pacing the floors.
@@EdOeunaNo-one there knew that it was a hoax and, while the fact it came via email might suggest that it might not be as credible, the flight crew's first priority is the safety of the passengers and crew and they were trying to work out the best way to ensure that. Not being given timely and accurate information prevented them from being able to do that. If they were told from the start that stairs and fire vehicles would not be approaching and they didn't have an ETA on when the police would be able to do that, then perhaps the captain might have decided to pop the slides and evacuate fairly early on. They were not laid back, they definitely sounded stressed, but remained professional.
@@PoolOfTrees - at my airline yoh pass this wort of stuff back to the management and they sort it out. Whilst waiting for their feedback you can organise the cabin crew to search the aircraft, either discreetly or otherwise. In the meantime there’s not much else to do.
Very professional response from BA in what must have been an incredibly stressful situation. I appreciate stressful for ATC and she was trying to do her best too. However I don’t think I would want to use this airport, it didn’t sound rehearsed in responding to emergency situations. If it was believed the terminal threat was more credible than the aircraft , so that staying onboard was safer than evacuating, that should have been communicated.
Honestly, I feel for both ATC and the pilots in this one. From what I could tell, at first it looked like one bomb threat, and then it emerged there were two and procedures probably weren't made for that event. ATC (or at least that particular worker) isn't being evacuated but terminal is and probably a lot of the contacts she would regularly need to coordinate with in a situation like that, so she's calling and getting redirected to wherever the secondary contact is set up, while each part of the whole is gradually coming to the realization that there are two threats and that one has to take priority, and I'm guessing the terminal got it. She's doing what she can with what resources she can actually rally in the confusion, with what calm she's able to maintain while she isn't being evacuated when many other departments are. Then the pilots are stuck with what little information trickles their way. They don't know the exact nature of the threat. Are they currently hostages? Is someone negotiating for them? If they start the evacuation, will that inspire the bomber to act and detonate? They have to continue making decisions based on what they know and how much calm they're able to maintain with the passengers. If they evacuate, people are going to get injured, so they would rather wait for the stairs if at all possible, but if panic sets in before that happens, the result will be even worse. If negotiations go on too long (if they're happening), the bomber could also lose patience and detonate just to teach a lesson. The tightrope of "how long should we wait" is razor thin and there's no right answer. The only thing they have to work with is that stairs are coming, so they're probably clear to get the passengers off the plane (otherwise, they wouldn't be sending stairs), and they want that to happen as swiftly and safely as possible. It's terrifying and frustrating and they've got to keep it together because losing their cool just isn't an option. Terrible situation all around, but I don't think ATC holds the blame for it so much as whoever submitted the threats in the first place and the actual airport for not having robust enough procedures and resources to handle it effectively.
The pilots are probably nervous which is understandable due to the bomb threat inside their aircraft, so they want to get out of the plane ASAP. The ATC on the other hand is just a messenger which is why I agree that nobody can blame the ATC for this, she's just relaying information to the pilots because that's all she can do at that time.
@@ro-86alkonost78 i understand what you are saying but the way i read it was ATC would give pilots update then another 10 minutes would go by and the pilots would have to ask ATC for an update then 10 minutes would go by and the pilots would have to ask for another update..so ATC was giving them updates ONLY when the pilots asked for them...
@@MickeyMousePark Probably because every time they asked for an update, she would have to call the relevant department to get an update. It does appear she did issue updates on her own when she had some information to give.
Funnily enough, I've had a nightmare dealing with our Bermuda office at work for being so slow and unresponsive. Looks like it's a common theme over there. 😂
You can have the best evacuation plan on paper and training, but it's hard to convince people to approach an aircraft with a possible bomb inside of it in the real world...they were probably playing rock paper scissors to decide who would be the brave souls to approach the aircraft
1:36 - pilot said what i (a total noob regarding aviation) was thinking. a B could explode at any moment and you're just gonna let the plane hang out and chill on the runway?
@@ChrisCooper312 What other people? Neither the pilot nor I said anything about other people. In fact, judging from this recording, the plane ended up being directed to an isolated area precisely so that no "other people" would be affected. The focus is on evacuating passengers.
I think Bermuda needs to have their routines and airport services looked at. UK needs to ship out some professionals to overhaul the operation at their island.
I don't want to comment on airport operations given how stretched they would have been with the terminal threat as well. But my real question is what on earth were the pilots supposed to say to the passengers during that hour?
I once landed during a bomb threat in the terminal. It's not 100% the same situation, as there was no threat against the plane itself. While we were still in the plane, we were told that there is a bomb threat in the terminal and we will stay in the plane for indefinite time. After around 10 minutes they gave us stars and grouped us outside the terminal. Then we had to stay outside for 1 more hour until everything was clear. There was no panic or any vocal reaction by the passengers. They were mostly annoyed that they got delayed ~90 minutes for an internal flight that lasts 45 minutes.
I think the ATC did a fine job relaying info to Speedbird. She worked with what she had and remained calm.. Airports evac procedures definitely need a review.
But apparently this was the last aircraft out - so about that terminal evacuation - Question, how log does it take to evacuate Cleaners and Light bulb changers from the airport when they want to go home already!
This is just a logistic nightmare. As the time stamp given was 0000Z, or 2100 local (UTC-3 for summer), this was likely one of the last flights-if not the last-for the day. At first, I thought they should've at least had the air stairs out relatively quick, but I forgot about the time and realized there was probably no one at the airport to drive the air stairs. The simultaneous threat to the terminal didn't do any favors as employees would still have to evacuate until the all clear is given. It makes a little more sense why it took forever and a day to assist BAW18B. Not to mention, the airport is also serviced by a single 2 lane causeway. A nice bottleneck to slow down anyone trying to access the terminal. If this happened in the afternoon, I could see room to blame 'Island time'.
Agree, but no excuse to not have a stair driver available on the tarmac any time there's a plane on the ground, as its the primary method of evacuation
so did ATC call down and say we need stairs..and was told ok...10 minutes later called down again and were told they are on their way (stair people knowing full well no stairs were on their way) then called down again and was told they are on their way (again stair people had no stairs enroute)..then 10 minutes later called down and told the stairs would take 20 minutes (my guess they found someone that will drive the stairs after they arrive from home) Everyone keeps saying it is a small airport which would mean when stairs were dispatched it should not take 30+ minutes to get to any point on the airfield (maybe 10 minutes worst case) all you would need is 1 person to drive them..i would understand if the stairs were driving from one side of JFK to the other..
@@DrPepper22222 I agree with having someone available, but it doesn't seem likely there's an employee facility on field apart from the terminal other than ATC and ARFF (and flight schools). If terminal was evacuated due to bomb scare, locating the employee to summon the air stairs is a chore in itself, not to mention if keys were in the terminal when evacuated. When ordered to evacuate, ideally you drop whatever you were doing and get to the nearest available exit and wait for all clear before re-entering. Since the terminal has jet bridges, no one was likely manning the air stairs at the time of bomb threat.
@@MickeyMousePark It would be fair to assume since it IS a small airfield, the airport facilities are located IN the main terminal. Since the terminal does have jetways, it's fair to not man the air stairs 24/7. If the building was evacuated before someone was able to grab the keys for the air stairs, then those keys remain in the terminal until the all clear is given. It's likely the facilities group had the phones forwarded to cell phones and they were giving estimates based off what security was giving. Not saying tower was giving good/bad info, just saying there's a lot more at play than what we hear on the radios. We don't know what tower is saying off air.
Interesting predicament, a plane and a terminal. Both together at the same time. I wonder how many airports of that size have that sort of contingent in place. And what staff are available. Knowing some places they wouldn’t have enough staff on a normal day. Anyone know what category TXF is for Fire crews?
Both BA and ATC deserve kudos. ATC was extremely limitied in what information they could provide since the terminal was amidst an evacuation themselves. The system was stressed and for a resource-thin island like Bermuda, many lessons to be learned here.
What does IACO specify for airline operations? I know the USA's FAA has very specific requirements for ARFF and response times. 1 hour to respond to a bomb threat is absolutely ridiculous.
Wow that’s ridiculous and I’ve been in that position at YVR. Took 35 mins to “rapid deplane” even though the bridge was docked the whole time. Took that long to get a Wheelchair pax off… fuel leak, cabin had a nearly flammable atmosphere.
Let's just talk about the gaslighting! Constantly lying that they were on their way and then saying ARFF was below the tower, and then, only after pushing further, did she clarify they hadn't even left yet. Maybe its not all on the tower, but people need to start giving exact answers. If she said, stairs are 1hr away, that plane would have been rapid evac'd within 10 minutes.
The real rub here is the fire equipment being told to stand clear of the aircraft until bomb squad cleared it - and the bomb squad was where? I would not have been happy with that statement although I understand evacuating the terminal probably spread every responder pretty thin.
What use is the fire brigade other than to douse the fire? If this were an actual bomb and it exploded having the entire fire brigade under the aircraft increases odds of collateral injuries and degradation of fire fighting capabilities. The issue here is how long it took the airport to respond and the lack of a bomb squad available to clear the threat. Fire brigade cannot clear a possible bomb to my understanding.
@@terrybarnett273 I'm not sure about Bermuda, but in most places the fire department are also paramedics and, in the case of an airport fire department, trained to assist in evacuations and such. Obviously, yes, don't put the fire engines directly under the wings, but having them close enough that they could respond immediately to a fire if a bomb did detonate seems like it should be SOP. In such a situation, seconds in response time would make life-or-death differences likely to a substantial number of passengers.
@@vbscript2 The fire engines were apparently gathered somewhere behind the plane where the pilots couldn't see them, though I don't know how far back they were. Given that there really wasn't anything for them to do at the time (fire or medical), it makes sense that they stayed a safe distance away.
@@vbscript2from a article I read (if I find it again I will send it) Bermuda airport fire service had a few truck nearby but a majority of it’s force was at the terminal. Bermuda airport fire service only had 4 ARFF trucks plus one fire truck and one command vehicle. Plus 20 cops in the airport. A terminal evacuation and plane evacuations at the same time spread them pretty thin. Closes back up was in Hamilton about 30 mins away and only the Bermudan military has bomb disposal teams, not the police service.
If you ask me, i would have deployed the slides as soon that the tower told there is a bomb tread on the terminal as well. It was night so probably about 26°C and clear sky so not so bad for the passengers to be outside. I know that the slides are a risk for injuries but they could take it slow as well and sure better than sitting ducks.
What is obviously not understood here, is that the air stairs are the responsibility of a guy actually named Marshal. He’s also responsible for custodial service in the public washrooms, so talk of bombs or explosions can be taken in different ways. Although, he probably thought he was really in for it as he was driving the stairs to the toilets.
That ATC blagged it for the longest time! Shocking, whatever protocol is 🤷🏾♀️ That put the Captain in a very difficult position indeed. Will there be an investigation into this?
If they had imported the stairs via TEMU, they would have arrived faster. What is the problem? A stair is a special truck, the max distance at an airport is 5 KM. Nobody needs a stair truck to evacuate the terminal. Hell, the Bahamas are on my no-fly list now. Just Imagine, You sit in that plane with the bomb threat and have to wait THAT LONG for a simple stairs??? The Captain has balls to plan evacuation via slides
It sounded like they didnt have a driver and were concerned for the driver getting into a proximity of a bomb threat. The last one I can understand but no driver to even get within a range to approach when told it was clear is a bit ridiculous. They could have had it prepped and just held outside of a certain radius and had the plane evac via emergency slides if they deemed the threat credible.
I wonder what "company policy" is for a bomb threat while you're still on the ground. Pilot: Are the stairs coming? Tower: We're busy. We're evacuating the terminal. I'll make a call in a few minutes to find out. Pilot: We're evacuating NOW !
@beachbum77979 The QRH ( Quick Reference Handbook ) does in fact have a procedure for "Bomb Onboard while on Ground" which pretty much will align with Company Policies.
@@beachbum77979 according to some info i have from pilots and others in the know, the QRH States wait for the stairs unless the device has been confirmed onboard, then evac via slides. There is no real finite time limitation which is absolutely absurd
I'm surprised he didn't deploy slides much sooner and I'd love to know what his company policy is on that issue. Please don't comment and tell me that slides are dangerous when the other option is deplaining via bomb blast...
![[REAL ATC] An UNRULY AIR MARSHAL forces emergency landing!](/img/n.gif)
That one hour must have been long for those pilots, cabin crew and passengers...
I'm not sure the Captain would have said "hey, we're just hanging out over here for an hour because there's a suspected Bomb on board" ... I wonder if he just said there was a technical issue with the aircraft and they need to wait for some stairs. Or at least, stick with that story until the stairs arrive, then tell them "get off quickly, there is a threat to this aircraft" .. just to stop some people (and you know there would be some!) who would be tempted to grab their luggage from the overheard "bins" 🙂
One could argue that if they honestly believed that the aircraft would explode at any moment, a crew directed passenger evacuation may have been the best course of action.
…can you imagine the investigation findings, had it actually exploded? Everyone would be asking why they didn’t evacuate.
@@zedzeduk People would probably have popped the slides themselves if he said that... Slides are armed for takeoff...
The Captain wasn't taking any chances. He said that they waited for Almost an Hour and if the Stairs didn't show up, he would have to Initiate an Emergency Evacuation of the Aircraft Using the Slides and Assembling all Passengers under the Royal Air Force C-17. ATC was overwhelmed by this and So was Speedbird 18B. Unfortunately, the Terminal had High priority but the Speedbird 18B Aircraft was the first one to receive the message. That could've been bad and this would've been Reported to the AAIB and British Airways Headquarters in London.
@@pilotpaul7347The chance of a real bomb as opposed to a hoax is small, and the risk of injury from a slide evacuation high, so I can understand the captain’s decision making here. Least risk option would be to get passengers off quickly via air stairs, which is what he was asking for and took an hour to organise 🤨
Man could have ordered stairs from Amazon faster…
...and that's with it being built and shipped from China!
And with out Prime shipping.
SERIOUSLY
Not with arrivals stopped. Legend has it the stairs were indeed ordered from China and are aboard a plane currently looking at them from above, from the nearest holding point.
@@milankowww 🤣
Captain: MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, request takeoff clearance and radar vector to the nearest airport, we're gonna evacuate there, since it's FASTER
Not going to work. They are in the middle of the ocean, with no nearby airports.
IKR
They're in Bermuda... nearest airport is North Carolina 1000km West.
@@sailortristan Would be faster to do a river landing in the Hudson
After the mayday call they don't even have to ask for takeoff clearance, but just say that they will be taking off and flying to the nearest alternate airport. Though it might be a bit ways off starting from Bermuda.
speedbird 18b, it looks like you've exploded, the stairs will arrive in 20 minutes.
Yeah sorry about the delay😂
They lost 3 passengers and 1 crew to natural causes due to old age.
3 injured due to boredem
@@walkingpineapple4563 @walkingpineapple4563 Oh stop this bull/fake news spread!
Excellent decision by the Captain to call May Day when he wasn't getting the support required. Forced them to assist instead of continuing to delay. Very professionally handled by the BA crew
I agree. I think the controller is placed on high alert when the word, “Mayday” is used.
Sounds like an airport desperately needs to re-evaluate their emergency procedures. The amount of time that airplane had to sit was borderline incompetence
borderline? I'd say they crossed the border 40 minutes ago
Not borderline, the definition of incompetence.
Yeah, after she said that they were on their way, and that she did not have a metric of time, just silly qualifier statements like soon. Then, she says that they're on standby. That's the moment for me, we cross that line into incompetence, when you told me that they were on their way, and standing by, at some other place, that is not where I need them to be.
@@ivanbliminsevideolocker Maybe there was an issue with the braveness level of some people when they learned 'on their way' why they were going to the plane.
@@martinbrink6711This is well past the line of malice in my opinion. If it's taking this long, they should have told the pilot that he can evacuate using the slides.
You can really hear him livid mad and trying to stay calm.
And then the voice changes.... Uhoh.
@@intorainbowzOG Yeah, not a good sign when the captain himself gets on the mic
So British.
Bomb ”I will stand by for further information as well. ”
😂
😂😂
Although ATC has no control over the availability of ramp equipment, how the airport authority took so long to dispatch stairs, irrespective of the situation at the terminal, is mind boggling.
Not easy situation and decisions I have to understand. But yes, took very long.
@@VASAviationBA is typically the last flight out of BDA and the airport staff usually leave immediately after the aircraft is out of their hands, it’s pretty crazy
@@elbobo3251That's what I was thinking. It was after midnight.
the pilot basically had to orchestrate everything. she never thought about getting the passengers off it was his idea
@@pomerau It was after midnight UTC. It was 21.10 local time.
Notice how the BA pilot told ATC the passengers would be convening under the port wing of the C-17. This is presumably due to the port side being sheltered from the 777 by the C-17 fuselage itself, and under the wing to prevent debris raining down should there be an explosion. Great thinking by the crew!
He was probably hoping there would be some sensible RAF chaps there to help instead of the clueless jackasses working at the airport.
“Where are they coming from, out of interest?” is a classic 😂
And here's the kicker: every point on the island is less than an hour's drive from the airport.
Had to fly one in, but there was a bomb threat, apparently
On the ferry, it'll depart noon tomorrow and be with us about 5pm
"Heathrow - do you want to meet them halfway to save time?"
Unacceptable that it took that long to get emergency services to the jet.
As a rule ground services are not obliged to take steps out unless they are manned by volunteers…found this out when I had to orginisr an evacuation on a bomb threat in the 80’s in uk..
As someone who was at Pentagon on September 11, I guess I am used to emergency personnel who charge towards the danger zone.
@@alanholck7995 Yeah... As a general rule, ARFF should be able to respond to an emergency on any part of the airport within 5 minutes. At least that's the rule in the U.S., though I was under the impression that it was an ICAO standard for all passenger service airports.
Bermuda is a very small airport in the Caribbean. They aren’t manned like other major airports.
@@denniswise1460 So
What a fucking joke. Airlines should reconsider flying to this airport if this is what their emergency response looks like.
I agree. What if there was a repeat of the BA 777 at Las Vegas? How long would the Fire Service take??
what airport was this?
@@aftondill2837 L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda
I agree with all... as I commented above: "how does one remain respectful when [it's so < >'d up]? oh my goodness
@@oldmanc2 Japan Airlines in Tokyo Haneda. Going up in flames and evacuating without any human losses. Bermuda: "Do you have a booking for the emergency services ?"
Pilot was seriously considering deploying slides and evacuating . He was facing command decision. What a cluster-flip this was.
@@Shadow__133 Yes, agreed. The pilot could not and did not know the full scope of the situation.
And it was the pilot and captain who were having to chase up the ATC for any updates, they weren't being given any realistic information about when stairs or emergency services would actually be with them or that there had been any delays. I mean, even the delay to tell them where to taxi to in order to isolate and evacuate seems ridiculous. Surely there is a documented standard plan for the threat of a bomb on a plane that the ATC should grab and follow. Obviously with the terminal evacuation that would impact upon some of the response, but at least the first part of telling them where to taxi the aircraft to have been quicker.
You can *hear* the professional British eye-rolling in the captain and FO's voices :D
I was thinking about the passengers all rolling their eyes too "Bomb threat? for goodness sake!" lol
@@zephyrsky__Almost certainly the passengers weren't told the real reason to avoid panic - imagine what they'd be like having to wait an hour sitting above a possible bomb. The flight crew had definitely gone past eye rolling and into biting sarcasm ("and you don't have a time for that?" and regarding where the fire engines were: "there's no way of turning this aircraft around, so no, we can't see them").
Well, we all learned something about "island time" in an emergency today..
Even under a bomb threat, they still operate on Caribbean time!
Which is weird since Bermuda isn't in the Caribbean.
@@vbscript2 Mid-Atlantic seems to be just as bad. Same island mentality
Island Time
That's unacceptable from the airport. Any airlines flying there should be seriously considering pausing their routes into that airport until they have a full explanation of what happened and assurances that future emergency responses will be handled more professionally. If the threat had been real, that could have been catastrophic.
That would serve Bermuda right, as it is heavily dependent on tourism.
you know that they can't access runway before Police clears the area right?
@@beastlysunsuper cool. And it's also super cool that they had absolutely no knowledge of how long it takes on average for the police to get there /s. I'm not being cute, they should be doing safety drills so they know how long it is, they should be on the phone with the police going 'where are the responding cars right now'. They should be saying in their second breath 'you're on your own now, we're not going to help you' If they know the cars haven't even left the station yet and it takes them 20 minutes to get there on a good day, they can say 'it'll be at least half an hour, use the slides'. Tbh, I'm kind of shocked they didn't use the slides automatically. Like, okay some people could get hurt on them- or they could get blown up. Like wtf
Legend has it the passengers are still waiting to disembark
Nonsense. They got off. We know this as it said they were evacuated. Legend has it they're still under the wing of a C17 having eaten their way through the slowest passengers. The stairs are still 20 minutes away.
@@ts757arse I love that. :)
@@ts757arse "But did he ever return, no he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned..."
No, they are still waiting for the lemon scented napkins to arrive.
That Captain was awesome. He realizes that if he orders an evacuation via the slides that there WILL be injuries. He pre-orders that ambulances accordingly. He wasn't far from ordering the slide evacuation.
The British Airways crew handled that so incredibly well. Remained calm at all times and also looking ahead. Wow!
They were incredibly patient. Perhaps too patient? If the treat is credible, I would not want to sit around waiting for close to an hour on a jet loaded with fuel and the cabin full of passengers…
@AndreSomers I agree. At which point is it justifiable to wait for "another few minutes".
Im just sitting in my room listening to the Audio so who am I to judge, but I feel like they should've evacuated via slides instantly after the "I hope so"- atc call
@@Mrcl5902 100% a bomb threat is not something you just calmly wait around to see if you go boom.
The pilots were absolutely incompetent. Should have immediately dropped the slides and got everybody a long way away from that aircraft.
@@Mrcl5902 problem is: slides are risky (and expensive)
@@AndreSomersYep, that'll be why he ordered ambulances as knowing some people may break their legs
In Island = "They are on their way" = "They haven't picked up the phone / They have other tasks before you"
In Island = "10 minutes" = "35 minutes"
Pssst… Great Britain is also an island…
It's like the Seinfeld episode in the Chinese restaurant , "Should be 5...10 minutes..."
Any tropical or sub-tropical locale I swear has this mentality. Come to Miami and ask to meet a local up in half an hour - see how long you'll wait.
What a sh!tshow. If this was an genuine threat people woule be dead by now. Very professional pilots and atc though
@@horvath83 which makes sense - let's just say that this sounded like a typical phone call to majority of UK call centres - minus the potential threat scenario, obviously.
I have to say, I'm amazed the captain didn't deploy chutes much earlier (unless this sort of things happens regularly, and they are always false alarms). He was repeatedly told "on their way" with the stairs when they were clearly not on their way - and in that situation this is totally unforgivable. I think especially with it being a UK plane (or if it had been a US one) the threats need to be treated very, very seriously due to the history of terror attacks against those nations .. so yeah, unforgivable to be giving out "on our way" messages when that wasn't the case. Not blaming Tower here if they were just passing on messages, but still, someone, somewhere needs to change job - if the captain had been told initially "it'll take 45 minutes to get you some stairs" I'm sure he would have evaculated immediately.
I seem to recall an aircraft with a bomb threat called in, they told the captain to hold and when told there would be a delay for stairs, ordered the crew to pop the slides and evacuated onto the runway
Capt has to make the decision as he is commander of the a/c.. steps are only provided by apron services if they get volunteers to do so.. would have thought that BA operating manual would have told him that.. appreciate they don’t like using the chutes as the a/c would be AOG till they were repacked and checked
@@We-re.doomed123 There are almost invariably injuries from a chute evacuation. So the captain has to balance that against seriousness of the threat. Given that there was a threat against the terminal as well, and that there were no ground staff and ambulances, the passengers might have been safer where they were.
You’d have to fly in new ones for this plane to depart
@@johnbrickel6446 Not so
There was a BA plane that had inflated slides a few months ago... They were removed and the aircraft ferried to the Mx base and repaired
"Urgent need for you to stop your take off due to a bomb threat, now go over there and sit in the corner like a good lad for an hour, while we wait for the bomb to go off."
This was painful to watch. The airport was like "You, too, have a bomb over there? Well that fckn SUCKS"... wow
"That's crazy, bro..."
That poor controller. You could hear in her voice how frustrated she was that she had to keep telling the pilot “they’re on their way “. Heartbreaking.
57 minutes. Un-fucking-believable. Absolutely spot on from the pilot for keeping the pressure on ATC to assist.
Unfortunately there's not much ATC can do in this situation. We call emergency services and relay all the pertinent information of the situation to them and then they are supposed to respond. If I call them with an emergency aircraft and they are slow or delayed in response all I can do is call them again. This is on airport operations and their emergency services.
@@jangledereknow we are a very qualified cross trained bunch, our threat is “don’t make me come down there and drive it myself”. I’ll commandeer my own dang stairs, and run back for the fire engine. And the ambulance, and the shuttle bus if necessary. It’s Bermuda, probably a lovely evening for a jog.
@@jaysmith1408if it’s a 20 minute drive for them, I doubt you’d get there before morning
Oh come on our sheltered housing fire alarms went off early hours of Thursday morning alarm flash in housing associations community alarm centre fire brigade comes immediately were here in a few minutes assessment made false alarm alarm reset and an less than one hour lated well infact 40 minutes later thed all gone and we could nod off if our place can respond that quick as there fifty odd people inbuilding why a well equipped airport cant do better than the airport did is beyond me
@@bunglejoy3645first of all, that’s barely decipherable…
Second, a fire false alarm and a fake bomb threat are entirely different things…
Thirdly, it’s harder to handle an emergency in a larger place with more people, not easier, so the size of the airport compared to your community whatever actually works against your point.
Always on top of every event, great job VASAviation!
Of course, thanks!
There’s one destination to avoid if their emergency response to a bomb threat is so amateurish. Non-compliant with ICAO requirements and just a circus act.
Disgraceful.
Bermuda going straight downhill.
sadly the isolation-stand is just for that...
Using slides (I see this being asked a lot) is inherently a high risk option. You’ll note the captain requesting ambulances for this eventuality. Friction burns, broken bones, and head injuries are common. Also the risk of crush injuries or someone pushed off the slide. It’s very much a last resort.
But up until which point is it justifiable to wait for "another few minutes"?
Thanks, i was wondering why they didn't use those!
Do you believe it would've been a viable option if they knew from the start that the stairs would take an hour to arrive?
I just find it hard to understand how they weigh this apparently credible threat to their lives against possible injuries.
@@SVD_NL the issue here is not knowing the credibility of the threat. Threats such as this are made all the time against aircraft. They rarely rise to the level seen here, as there’s an index for defining how credible the threat is. The pilots, not having this index or credibility told to them, are in a very difficult position trying to balance outcomes.
If we think about it, had they been told ‘it’ll be an hour’ then yes, that might be a good idea. But then they keep being told 10-20 minutes, which tempts them to hold off.
The information the terminal is also unsafe means stranding the passengers in a dangerous no-mans-land in potentially hot/cold conditions for several hours. Which could result in more issues.
I do think their mental model would’ve been different had they heard an hour from the very start, but I also think they could’ve asked more questions about the intel and maybe called their security duty manager for an update.
Sometimes Ryanair built-in stairs are the way to go 😂
It’s also possible to perform a rapid disembarkation instead of an all out evacuation, using the slides. This has been proven to be far safer than an evacuation because it is far more orderly. As an aside, the Boeing manual gives 30 minutes to divert, land and evacuate with a bomb threat in the air. I’d apply that 30 minutes to the ground scenario as well, assuming no other credible information comes from tower of BA-HQ. After that it’s the slides for me.
Utterly shambolic from both ATC and BA pilots.
I was cabin crew back in the late ‘70s on 747s, several times after departure from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth if England had just beaten Australia at cricket, rugby or tiddlywinks some muppet would call in a bomb scare on our flight number. Procedure was always a discrete but thorough cabin check, toilets, galley bins and then carry on as normal to our destination, usually Singapore or Columbo if out of Perth. It was routine if a big sport event was on.
"Cancel takeoff, you might be sitting on a bomb... standby one (hour)" 😮
Wow... that was crazy. An hour... good thing there wasn't a bomb, or it was a very patient one. ATC can't control services so I felt sorry for the controller having to give the pilots no good information as that's all she was getting. I'm surprised the pilot didn't pop the slides much earlier, but he was definitely cool but annoyed.
what an absolute cluster. Seems the airport authority has just been collecting a paycheck for years without doing any real contingency planning/drilling.
If I was BA, I'd be asking some pretty serious questions to the airport management and strongly considering the safety factors of flying into that airport right about now.
That is a tough call for the crew. Wait for stairs and avoid injuries but risk mass casualties if it is a real threat (often these seem to be not) - or evacuate now via slides with injuries, aircraft disabled but avoid mass casualties.
And all they did was make life miserable for this captain, whose job would be on the line if he messed something up, or made the wrong decision.
Ok I get that you’re evacuating the terminal, likely on a skeleton shift.
I get that the emergency crews have to stay back until the aircraft is cleared by bomb squad if that’s their procedure.
I get that the tower is dealing with a lot.
But is it really that hard a request to get someone to drive a set of steps to the aircraft in less than half an hour?
could be wrong but my impression is people are being held back by some authority (or maybe didn't want to go). It's not a trivial thing to approach a plane with a potential bomb on it
Not if they have a free person, which they apparently did not.
@@653j521 The crash/fire rescue people were sitting on their thumbs. One of them could have driven stairs over in bunker gear.
I imagine that the ground crew were evacuating the same time the terminal was, so you would have to find, organize, and coordinate the ground crew to get those stairs.
Man what an incredible delay! I understand that a threat against the terminal building diverted a lot of resources, but they didn’t need marshalers and airsteps to evacuate the terminal. Sounds like a lot of confusion over priorities, and attempts to secure the safety of ground personnel at the expense of passengers and flight crew. I do hope BA will be polling every airport they use for their procedures for this kind of thing, that was wholly unacceptable!
I highly commend the pilot for being insistent, taking control , and showing concern for his passengers.
Emergency procedures have to be evaluated at this location. Also training.
That must’ve been a long hour for those pilots, knowing that if the threat was credible it could have happened at anytime. Kudos to them for staying so calm
I'm really surprised that captain didn't order emergency evac via slides. You can hear his growing concern for everyone on the plane.
It’s always a risk of multiple injuries and the chance of this being a real bomb relatively small. Very tough decision for the captain.
@@horvath83 - the alternate is a relatively slow disembarkation using the slides, not a full blown panic evacuation. This is an option in the bomb on board checklist.
@@EdOeuna There is always a risk of panic when slides are involved, telling passengers to stay calm because it is just a bomb threat probably won’t work either…
@@horvath83 - I’ll let Boeing know. Maybe they’ll change their checklists for you.
@@EdOeuna As you said “it’s an option” so it is captain’s decision after all, isn’t it? Are you accusing BAW captain of wrong doing here?
"Speedbird 18B, Bermuda Tower, you are on your own, over. Good luck!"
well, if they had actually said that, it would have been useful as the captain would have deployed the slides immediately. The fact that atc kept saying it was on its way made it much worse.
"have you got stairs in sight" :)
"Looking for traffic."
*30 minutes later*
"Still looking for traffic."
I think they must have been flying the stairs in from RDU or something.
@@vbscript2 or a cruise ship just arrived and they need the stairs to unload it..
I've listened to it a couple of times, and to me it sounds like he actually asked "have you got stairs in place?" rather than "...in sight" as the subtitles say.
Missed the chance to use "one eternity later" from SpongeBob
Good idea! 😂 Maybe it was a copyright issue.
@@kevindavis8175 Nah, every toddler streaming on Twitch or Discord uses it
I like the part where the controller explains that the firebrigade is not allowed to approach the aircraft as there is a bomb threat. So many brave people at this airport...
The fire fighters probably don't have training in bomb threat evaluation and ordnance disposal. That's why they were required to remain clear until the police dealt with the threat. It doesn't have anything to do with lack of bravery. Sending in folks without proper training will only make things worse.
They don't do things that they are not trained for wether they are there or not. And I sure hope they are trained to help evacuate planes. How does the controller send stairs and marshaller when they are on their own knowing the fireservice will not come? It's like looking for volunteers stepping forward and everybody takes a step back.
but ATC did not volunteer that info until the pilots asked for an update..
Shocking lack of urgency, the whole "Island time" thing really should be nowhere near airport ops
"Speedbird 18B, while your waiting we are showing a documentary on TWA800 on the Airport Wifi if you and the passengers are interested ..."
Things never change. Very similar happened in Budapest, aircraft diverted there, informed them half an hour before. They eventually evacuated after the hopeless waiting.
IMO the controller handled this well given the circumstances beyond her control - clear communication, didn’t become overwhelmed, good job 🫡
Wow! Talk about running on island time! What a cluster...
She totally G.R.R Martin'ed him 😂
"The stairs are coming! They are on their way!"
😂😂😂 but no pizza?
While there may be lapses in handling this emergency, the controller has no fault for this because at that point, she's just a messenger who can only relay information to the pilots, she can't do anything else maybe except tell the marshallers, stairs and firemen that the pilots want them to hurry up but if they don't, then the controller can't do anything.
Imagine being an airstairs driver: "We need you to drive the stairs up to the aircraft with a bomb threat. Bob won't do it, and ARFF's safety procedures don't allow them to approach."
Was BAW18B on their own from the start?
In a recent sim session with an inflight bomb scare we were briefed that US unions refuse to let their members approach aircraft if there is a bomb scare, so the general rule is that you’re on your own and have to decide how real the risk is. Big airlines have security departments that assess this sort of stuff all the time. Maybe the pilots already knew it was a hoax which is why they were so laid back by the scenario.
@@EdOeunathey were not by any means laid back. The captain asking for updates every few minutes and growing increasingly agitated was the pilot equivalent of pacing the floors.
@@EdOeunaNo-one there knew that it was a hoax and, while the fact it came via email might suggest that it might not be as credible, the flight crew's first priority is the safety of the passengers and crew and they were trying to work out the best way to ensure that. Not being given timely and accurate information prevented them from being able to do that. If they were told from the start that stairs and fire vehicles would not be approaching and they didn't have an ETA on when the police would be able to do that, then perhaps the captain might have decided to pop the slides and evacuate fairly early on. They were not laid back, they definitely sounded stressed, but remained professional.
@@PoolOfTrees - at my airline yoh pass this wort of stuff back to the management and they sort it out. Whilst waiting for their feedback you can organise the cabin crew to search the aircraft, either discreetly or otherwise. In the meantime there’s not much else to do.
Looks like the aircraft invoked is G-VIIN. B772 with 235 pax seats.
Did initially wonder why the C-17 was shown on the video.
Invoked?
Very professional response from BA in what must have been an incredibly stressful situation. I appreciate stressful for ATC and she was trying to do her best too. However I don’t think I would want to use this airport, it didn’t sound rehearsed in responding to emergency situations. If it was believed the terminal threat was more credible than the aircraft , so that staying onboard was safer than evacuating, that should have been communicated.
An email bomb threat is just lazy. What's this world come to.
What if that email went to the spam box? 🤣
People don't use emails much anymore, must have been an old fart doing this.
@@bardo0007 at least they didn’t fax it
Honestly, I feel for both ATC and the pilots in this one. From what I could tell, at first it looked like one bomb threat, and then it emerged there were two and procedures probably weren't made for that event. ATC (or at least that particular worker) isn't being evacuated but terminal is and probably a lot of the contacts she would regularly need to coordinate with in a situation like that, so she's calling and getting redirected to wherever the secondary contact is set up, while each part of the whole is gradually coming to the realization that there are two threats and that one has to take priority, and I'm guessing the terminal got it. She's doing what she can with what resources she can actually rally in the confusion, with what calm she's able to maintain while she isn't being evacuated when many other departments are.
Then the pilots are stuck with what little information trickles their way. They don't know the exact nature of the threat. Are they currently hostages? Is someone negotiating for them? If they start the evacuation, will that inspire the bomber to act and detonate? They have to continue making decisions based on what they know and how much calm they're able to maintain with the passengers. If they evacuate, people are going to get injured, so they would rather wait for the stairs if at all possible, but if panic sets in before that happens, the result will be even worse. If negotiations go on too long (if they're happening), the bomber could also lose patience and detonate just to teach a lesson. The tightrope of "how long should we wait" is razor thin and there's no right answer. The only thing they have to work with is that stairs are coming, so they're probably clear to get the passengers off the plane (otherwise, they wouldn't be sending stairs), and they want that to happen as swiftly and safely as possible. It's terrifying and frustrating and they've got to keep it together because losing their cool just isn't an option.
Terrible situation all around, but I don't think ATC holds the blame for it so much as whoever submitted the threats in the first place and the actual airport for not having robust enough procedures and resources to handle it effectively.
The pilots are probably nervous which is understandable due to the bomb threat inside their aircraft, so they want to get out of the plane ASAP. The ATC on the other hand is just a messenger which is why I agree that nobody can blame the ATC for this, she's just relaying information to the pilots because that's all she can do at that time.
@@ro-86alkonost78 i understand what you are saying but the way i read it was ATC would give pilots update then another 10 minutes would go by and the pilots would have to ask ATC for an update then 10 minutes would go by and the pilots would have to ask for another update..so ATC was giving them updates ONLY when the pilots asked for them...
@@MickeyMousePark Probably because every time they asked for an update, she would have to call the relevant department to get an update. It does appear she did issue updates on her own when she had some information to give.
Apparently in Bermuda they do everything chill, including bomb threats.
Funnily enough, I've had a nightmare dealing with our Bermuda office at work for being so slow and unresponsive. Looks like it's a common theme over there. 😂
Bermuda - a great place to holiday, whether you're a tourist or airport worker!
You can have the best evacuation plan on paper and training, but it's hard to convince people to approach an aircraft with a possible bomb inside of it in the real world...they were probably playing rock paper scissors to decide who would be the brave souls to approach the aircraft
I think I know now where all those flights lost in Bermuda Triangle are... they are waiting for stairs.
Criminally underrated comment. lol
1:36 - pilot said what i (a total noob regarding aviation) was thinking. a B could explode at any moment and you're just gonna let the plane hang out and chill on the runway?
Think about it another way. Plane could explode at any minute so they are going to put other people in danger too?
@@ChrisCooper312
What other people? Neither the pilot nor I said anything about other people. In fact, judging from this recording, the plane ended up being directed to an isolated area precisely so that no "other people" would be affected.
The focus is on evacuating passengers.
I wonder what would authorities say to the newspapers if the plane actually exploded after 50 minutes of waiting
"Oops"?
I think Bermuda needs to have their routines and airport services looked at. UK needs to ship out some professionals to overhaul the operation at their island.
British pilots, the world's finest.
I don't want to comment on airport operations given how stretched they would have been with the terminal threat as well. But my real question is what on earth were the pilots supposed to say to the passengers during that hour?
I once landed during a bomb threat in the terminal. It's not 100% the same situation, as there was no threat against the plane itself. While we were still in the plane, we were told that there is a bomb threat in the terminal and we will stay in the plane for indefinite time. After around 10 minutes they gave us stars and grouped us outside the terminal. Then we had to stay outside for 1 more hour until everything was clear. There was no panic or any vocal reaction by the passengers. They were mostly annoyed that they got delayed ~90 minutes for an internal flight that lasts 45 minutes.
I am guessing anything but "There is a bomb threat on this plane". Or people will be pulling those slides themselves.
"sorry folks we've had a threat of a bomb on board and instead of evacuating we're just gonna have you all sit here"
Also, incredible, they couldn't spare one single person to drive stairs to the aircraft.
@@JoshuaCasey but you are welcome to a small package of peanuts while you wait...
I think the ATC did a fine job relaying info to Speedbird. She worked with what she had and remained calm.. Airports evac procedures definitely need a review.
ATC: "I called the fire department and mentioned there might be a bomb on board the aircraft, and they said f#@k that and went home"
What a cluster! Thank goodness those turned out to be a test run for this airport. They need to get it together.
"Tower, where are the marshallers and the drivers for the stairs?"
Bermuda Tower: "Well right now they´re still on the beach....."
But apparently this was the last aircraft out - so about that terminal evacuation - Question, how log does it take to evacuate Cleaners and Light bulb changers from the airport when they want to go home already!
First time I've heard a Captain actually sounding nervous on the radio
This is just a logistic nightmare. As the time stamp given was 0000Z, or 2100 local (UTC-3 for summer), this was likely one of the last flights-if not the last-for the day. At first, I thought they should've at least had the air stairs out relatively quick, but I forgot about the time and realized there was probably no one at the airport to drive the air stairs. The simultaneous threat to the terminal didn't do any favors as employees would still have to evacuate until the all clear is given. It makes a little more sense why it took forever and a day to assist BAW18B. Not to mention, the airport is also serviced by a single 2 lane causeway. A nice bottleneck to slow down anyone trying to access the terminal. If this happened in the afternoon, I could see room to blame 'Island time'.
Agree, but no excuse to not have a stair driver available on the tarmac any time there's a plane on the ground, as its the primary method of evacuation
so did ATC call down and say we need stairs..and was told ok...10 minutes later called down again and were told they are on their way (stair people knowing full well no stairs were on their way) then called down again and was told they are on their way (again stair people had no stairs enroute)..then 10 minutes later called down and told the stairs would take 20 minutes (my guess they found someone that will drive the stairs after they arrive from home)
Everyone keeps saying it is a small airport which would mean when stairs were dispatched it should not take 30+ minutes to get to any point on the airfield (maybe 10 minutes worst case) all you would need is 1 person to drive them..i would understand if the stairs were driving from one side of JFK to the other..
@@DrPepper22222 I agree with having someone available, but it doesn't seem likely there's an employee facility on field apart from the terminal other than ATC and ARFF (and flight schools). If terminal was evacuated due to bomb scare, locating the employee to summon the air stairs is a chore in itself, not to mention if keys were in the terminal when evacuated. When ordered to evacuate, ideally you drop whatever you were doing and get to the nearest available exit and wait for all clear before re-entering. Since the terminal has jet bridges, no one was likely manning the air stairs at the time of bomb threat.
@@MickeyMousePark It would be fair to assume since it IS a small airfield, the airport facilities are located IN the main terminal. Since the terminal does have jetways, it's fair to not man the air stairs 24/7. If the building was evacuated before someone was able to grab the keys for the air stairs, then those keys remain in the terminal until the all clear is given. It's likely the facilities group had the phones forwarded to cell phones and they were giving estimates based off what security was giving. Not saying tower was giving good/bad info, just saying there's a lot more at play than what we hear on the radios. We don't know what tower is saying off air.
Interesting predicament, a plane and a terminal. Both together at the same time.
I wonder how many airports of that size have that sort of contingent in place. And what staff are available.
Knowing some places they wouldn’t have enough staff on a normal day.
Anyone know what category TXF is for Fire crews?
This is a very serious situation, but I find it funny and I like that the pilot pretty much said "hurry up or we're evacuating using the slides"
Both BA and ATC deserve kudos. ATC was extremely limitied in what information they could provide since the terminal was amidst an evacuation themselves. The system was stressed and for a resource-thin island like Bermuda, many lessons to be learned here.
Bravo to crew!
Ultimate professionalism from the BA pilots as ever. Have the Bermuda airport team considered a job at the council? Seems they would be well suited.
What does IACO specify for airline operations? I know the USA's FAA has very specific requirements for ARFF and response times. 1 hour to respond to a bomb threat is absolutely ridiculous.
Wow that’s ridiculous and I’ve been in that position at YVR.
Took 35 mins to “rapid deplane” even though the bridge was docked the whole time. Took that long to get a Wheelchair pax off… fuel leak, cabin had a nearly flammable atmosphere.
EMS didn't want to be rushed finishing their rum punch pitcher before heading over
That's absolutely mind boggling!!
Be interesting to know what was communicated to the passengers. Would be tempting to listen to liveATC during a delay such as this.
You know you've watched/listened to a lot of VASA when you start to recognize pilots by their voices instantly.
Damn... that's horrible - for an email ?~~!! Captain seemed professional and vigilant. This airport? Nope....
Gob Bluth has the stairs at the casino, he’s heading back now.
Let's just talk about the gaslighting! Constantly lying that they were on their way and then saying ARFF was below the tower, and then, only after pushing further, did she clarify they hadn't even left yet.
Maybe its not all on the tower, but people need to start giving exact answers.
If she said, stairs are 1hr away, that plane would have been rapid evac'd within 10 minutes.
That's one way to ruin everybody's day.
The real rub here is the fire equipment being told to stand clear of the aircraft until bomb squad cleared it - and the bomb squad was where? I would not have been happy with that statement although I understand evacuating the terminal probably spread every responder pretty thin.
What use is the fire brigade other than to douse the fire? If this were an actual bomb and it exploded having the entire fire brigade under the aircraft increases odds of collateral injuries and degradation of fire fighting capabilities. The issue here is how long it took the airport to respond and the lack of a bomb squad available to clear the threat. Fire brigade cannot clear a possible bomb to my understanding.
@@terrybarnett273 I'm not sure about Bermuda, but in most places the fire department are also paramedics and, in the case of an airport fire department, trained to assist in evacuations and such. Obviously, yes, don't put the fire engines directly under the wings, but having them close enough that they could respond immediately to a fire if a bomb did detonate seems like it should be SOP. In such a situation, seconds in response time would make life-or-death differences likely to a substantial number of passengers.
@@vbscript2 The fire engines were apparently gathered somewhere behind the plane where the pilots couldn't see them, though I don't know how far back they were. Given that there really wasn't anything for them to do at the time (fire or medical), it makes sense that they stayed a safe distance away.
They were smart to hide out of sight of the pilot, or he might have been tempted to take the plane to them if they wouldn't come to him.
@@vbscript2from a article I read (if I find it again I will send it) Bermuda airport fire service had a few truck nearby but a majority of it’s force was at the terminal. Bermuda airport fire service only had 4 ARFF trucks plus one fire truck and one command vehicle. Plus 20 cops in the airport. A terminal evacuation and plane evacuations at the same time spread them pretty thin. Closes back up was in Hamilton about 30 mins away and only the Bermudan military has bomb disposal teams, not the police service.
If you ask me, i would have deployed the slides as soon that the tower told there is a bomb tread on the terminal as well.
It was night so probably about 26°C and clear sky so not so bad for the passengers to be outside.
I know that the slides are a risk for injuries but they could take it slow as well and sure better than sitting ducks.
What is obviously not understood here, is that the air stairs are the responsibility of a guy actually named Marshal. He’s also responsible for custodial service in the public washrooms, so talk of bombs or explosions can be taken in different ways. Although, he probably thought he was really in for it as he was driving the stairs to the toilets.
That ATC blagged it for the longest time! Shocking, whatever protocol is 🤷🏾♀️ That put the Captain in a very difficult position indeed. Will there be an investigation into this?
Anytime VAS brings out the local time stamp you know it’s gonna be spicy
If they had imported the stairs via TEMU, they would have arrived faster.
What is the problem? A stair is a special truck, the max distance at an airport is 5 KM.
Nobody needs a stair truck to evacuate the terminal.
Hell, the Bahamas are on my no-fly list now. Just Imagine, You sit in that plane with the bomb threat and have to wait THAT LONG for a simple stairs???
The Captain has balls to plan evacuation via slides
It sounded like they didnt have a driver and were concerned for the driver getting into a proximity of a bomb threat. The last one I can understand but no driver to even get within a range to approach when told it was clear is a bit ridiculous. They could have had it prepped and just held outside of a certain radius and had the plane evac via emergency slides if they deemed the threat credible.
I wonder what "company policy" is for a bomb threat while you're still on the ground.
Pilot: Are the stairs coming?
Tower: We're busy. We're evacuating the terminal. I'll make a call in a few minutes to find out.
Pilot: We're evacuating NOW !
I think my response to that "We're busy. We're evacuating the terminal." would have been "And you need stairs for that?!?"
@beachbum77979
The QRH ( Quick Reference Handbook ) does in fact have a procedure for "Bomb Onboard while on Ground" which pretty much will align with Company Policies.
@@CapStar362 OK, I now wonder what the QRH says about how long stairs should be waited for.
@@beachbum77979 according to some info i have from pilots and others in the know, the QRH States wait for the stairs unless the device has been confirmed onboard, then evac via slides.
There is no real finite time limitation which is absolutely absurd
I'm surprised he didn't deploy slides much sooner and I'd love to know what his company policy is on that issue.
Please don't comment and tell me that slides are dangerous when the other option is deplaining via bomb blast...
Just wow, smh, shout out to the BA Crew
Pilot: can we get emergency services?
Bugs Bunny ATC: No.
Bugs Bunny ATC: "Well, not todaaay!!!"