Evacuation of BA0058 on stand (long!)

Well, that was an interesting experience. BA0058, night flight (supposedly) to LHR, leaving Cape Town at 1945 on 15 April.

Boarded BA’s (elderly) Boeing 747 and took our seats (62A and 62B, CW, on the top deck), settled in, and then there was an announcement of a delay because the forward cargo door wasn’t closing.

So we shrugged and waited. The delay stretched to half an hour or so and I began to wonder about my connection to AMS. Then the pilot announced that there was an electrical glitch, and all power was going to be shut down to allow them to re-boot the system.

It’s instructive to know that “Turn it off and turn it on again” applies to B747s as well as crappy little Dell laptops.

Being seated where we were, we could see the cockpit, and the door was open and no fewer than three yellow-jacketed ground staff were crowded in. From the gist of what I could overhear, I deduced this wasn’t likely to be a quick fix.

The lights went out and the emergency lighting came on. And then an engineer came running, full tilt, into the cockpit. I turned to Mrs TOH and said: “When people run into cockpits, it’s never a good sign. We aren’t going to be flying.”

We overheard the conversation with some of the cabin staff, the confirmation that they had loudhailers and torches, and the relaying of instructions to abandon the aircraft, and I grabbed iPad and phone and ignored everything else.

And then, a moment later, the order came to leave the aircraft as fast as possible. “Don’t wait to put on your shoes, leave your luggage, walk as fast as possible to the exits.” The chutes weren’t deployed.

I have to hand it to the cabin crew – they were absolutely magnificent. Sure enough, some people tried to grab hand luggage, but they got us all off the plane with incredible speed, using just the emergency lighting and hand-held torches. Our steward said afterwards that they cleared the whole aircraft, a full load, in three minutes, using just the one forward door, the only means of boarding.

What got me was the slight delay immediately outside the door, in the gangway: a group of girls had congregated there, waiting for their mate(s), and were slowing things up. I just snapped (OK, shouted) at them: “MOVE! MOVE! People inside the plane can’t get out if you’re in the way here!” And I got a look of incredulity, and then they scurried up the gangway.

Some people don’t think.

So we all deplaned. I see on pprune that some say that strictly speaking, this wasn’t an ‘evacuation’ because the chutes were not deployed, and was a ‘non-event’. Well, if you were on my side of the fuselage, you’d have thought differently, and to hell with the minutiae.

It was bloody mayhem in Cape Town airport. Yours truly was the first to realise that this was going to be a long one, and headed straight for the BA lounge. Might as well have a drink (a maxim that has served me well over the decades). Others followed, and BA opened the lounge. Well done!

The cabin staff, some of them visibly a bit hyper, came in after a while and started chatting to and reassuring passengers. Again, I was immensely impressed. This is when these people earn their salt.

I asked one of the cabin crew: “Is this the first time you have had to do this?” It was, she confirmed, and added: “It’s really scary, because they don’t tell us what the problem is, they just tell us to get the passengers off as fast as possible. So we don’t really know what’s happening, but we get people off.” It’s nice to know the training works.

I understand that the plane was receiving no power either from the APU nor from the ground link, both of which were connected.

I reckoned that even if they fixed it, the flight crew would be outside their hours, and sure enough, after an hour or so this was confirmed, and we were told we’d be allowed back on the plane to collect our belongings, our luggage would be off-loaded, and we would be taken to a hotel. And the part(s) needed to repair the plane were at Jo’Burg anyway.

That was OK, but the chaos in the departure and baggage halls was amazing. We had to re-pass through immigration. OK. There were two people taking names for hotels, and demanding phone numbers from everyone. A number of people in First and CW were local residents and said they were simply going home. I’d have done that, too.

Interestingly, they were sorting out First and CW passengers (and those with small children or the infirm and damn right, too) first. There were plenty of people with Silver or Gold status who were in WT+ and WT, I think, who were miffed at being held back, and I have no idea how or where BA managed to put everyone else up.

The big problem was that the Customs bods had gone for the nights, and there was no way out of the baggage hall. All gates locked up. Eventually, some guy appeared and said he’d let through anyone who was resident in Cape Town.

That went down like a cold cup of sick, as you can imagine. The buses were waiting for us outside, and we were not going to wait for however long it took for the airport to contact the Customs officials, and bring them from their homes, wives, bars, games, wherever to the airport. We simply walked past the lone bod, who shrugged. Sound chap.

So we wound up in the Table Bay hotel, a stone’s throw from the Radisson where we’d just spent the previous 10 days. Very nice. Better than the Radisson, actually. Got into bed at 1.30am.

The flight was rescheduled for 9.45 the following night. I wrote off my AMS connection. I also had to write off my flight back from AMS to LHR. T’would be nice to see some form of recompense made for that, even if only Avios. Notified BA that I’d just be going home from LHR, and am trusting that my Tier Points will be credited despite the no-fly.

Some people have mentioned the EU compensation claim to me. Actually, in this case, and unlike my appalling experience with Monarch recently, I have absolutely no intention of making any claim, for inconvenience or anything. I don;’t know what exactly went wrong with the aircraft, but as far as I’m concerned it was one of those things which happens rarely (thankfully), and like I said, I am filled with admiration for the way the crew handled it.

If you were crew on the aircraft that night and are reading this, my personal thanks. I understand there were some irate and rude passengers – well, any delay is a pain, and the situation in the airport building was a joke, but that wasn’t BA’s fault.

TOH glad to hear all is OK and thank you for posting such a detailed account.

I suppose BA have lots of spare parts at JNB although they may be a bit short in the wing’s department 😉

@TOH, I thought your posting might end up being a case of tl;dr, but it was absolutely worth reading!

Thank you so much for sharing.

Martyn, I don’t think the safety briefing would have made a difference, and as it happens, I think the event happened before there was a briefing.

There was no use of the chutes, for example.

I understand from the cabin crew that, yes, some people did try and grab their bags. he crew kept repeating: “Do not try and get your bags. Don’t wait to put on your shoes. Just walk as quickly as you can, please.” (or something similar) over and over again.

The emergency lighting was brighter than I’d expected – like a dimly lit room, really. And the crew were wielding torches.

Mrs TOH and I just did exactly what we were told. I think the constant repetition of the ‘exit mantra’ really worked.

Magnificent spin SM, you’ve sent me to snooze land smiling and hoping to dream about my own personal jolly diversions.

I suppose if the galleries lounge had managed to give us food poisoning months ago we could always have just rebranded the experience and thanked BA for supplying us with a reverse colonic irrigation treatment as part of the luxuries of traveling up front. Lol.

Galleries food poisoning (of which I haven’t heard any significant chatter) would be cheaper than a long weekend at Champneys, and much less Middle Class.

TOH, I’m pleased you are all safe.

Does anyone know the cause of the evacuation yet?