[AMcWhirter]

There’s more information posted here on The Aviation Herald. It includes photos taken by passengers from inside the plane which show the engine cowling open.

http://avherald.com/h?article=462beb5e&opt=4096

[Pierre]

A bit of a chaos today at LHR
A third/fourth runways wld have helped a lot.
My flight is delayed by 4 hours..

[AnthonyDunn]

@ Guest_Poster – 24/05/2013 12:23 GMT
@ Travellator – 24/05/2013 12:33 GMT

Thanks for your comments. A truly harrowing ground witness commentary and pictures on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22650901

Clear evidence of the failure of the cowling on the port engine and from the Aviation Herald article, the failure of the starboard engine cowling. Surely, beyond being a coincidence?

@ Travellator – 24/05/2013 12:56 GMT

My understanding – from my time working at LGW – is that BigDog is correct. There is a parallel runway (ordinarily used as a taxiway) to the north of the main runway. It is there to ensure an alternative strip is available should anything such as planned maintenance or an aircraft landing/take-off event render the (longer) main runway unusable.

@ BigDog. – 24/05/2013 12:12 GMT

Sorry: I stand corrected – as the current updated LHR departures board shows.

[Travellator]

PA – How sad a four hour delay – the pax on the BA flight will have a much longer delay and trauma that could last for years – thank goodness all are safe !

[Travellator]

Thanks AD re LGW, my knowledge is only as a PAX but think a stricken aircraft would still make the second one inoperable dependent on its postion of course. Hope its never needed anyway !

[canucklad]

Some good coverage on Sky News

http://news.sky.com/

[BigDog.]

It appears Guest_Poster – 24/05/2013 12:23 GMT is currently on the money wrt the potential cause.

Most concerning if it is the case that failure to secure the cowlings is the cause. Not just on behalf of the engineer but is also a design flaw which would allow it to occur without a visual or auditory indicator.

[Guest_Poster]

Sometimes human factors cause incidents, too early to say in the case today, but this incident from 18 years ago shows things sometimes slip through the net.

http://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/B734,_en-route,_Daventry_UK,_1995_%28AW_LOC_HF%29

The FAA issued this note about 4 years ago, NB the aircraft type A319-132 is not the type operated by British Airways.

http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/info/all_infos/media/2009/info09013.pdf

Added, a link to the topic of cowl fasteners, for those who are interested or wish to know what the potential problem is.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/publications/tp3658-4-00-541-791.htm

[seanyjmuclhr]

While I am glad that the A319 concerned made it safely back down to earth and the crew did an outstanding job, the fact that BA cancelled all its SH flights until 4pm today has left hundreds of passengers stranded in various terminals.

I was headed for Prague this morning from T3, only to find via the screens in the departure lounge that the flight was cancelled. I went to the lounge where BA staff were clueless and very unsympathetic and simply shoed my off to the transfer desk next to Dixons, whereupon BAA/Heathrow Airport Ltd staff said that we needed to call BA to rebook, that the transfer desk would not help us. Two minutes later came the message that we needed to “land ourselves” and head through passport control and back to the ticket desk in zone G of departures. BA will no doubt claim that staff were working hard behind the scenes, but there was a distinct lack of BA staff visible in the transfer desk area to give us the correct information direct from BA. The few desk-based agents were not helpful either.

Anyway, once we got back down to departures, the lines at the ticket desk in zone G were just insanely long with tensions flaring and tempers rising – understandably so. Despite platitudes from the odd BA staff member and a free bottle of water, nothing else was communicated other than “stand in line, and wait your turn.” And yet despite there being 6 desks at the ticket desk, only 3 were manned. 1 for club/exec gold, silver and 2 for everyone else.

After 2 hours of trying, I got through to the exec club on the phone and I have now been rebooked on a flight tomorrow, plus I live close by to the airport and headed back home. However, I feel sorry for those passengers who are from out of town, whose native language is not English and who do not have a hotel for the night. Plus, for those who are still standing in line some 3 hours later, some of whom are frail, tired and of a senior age.

While bird strikes and incidents such as this morning’s do happen and our first thoughts must be about ensuring passenger safety on aircraft, I am afraid that BA’s handling of the matter for those passengers left on the ground this morning has proven to be extremely poor. There was a distinct lack of communication and everyone concerned has been left to fend for themselves. Shocking, just shocking. Shame on you BA.

[openfly]

With regard to the supposition that the engine problems may lie with the engine cowling clips. Yes the ground engineer who checked the engine oils could be the last person to have “secured” the cowling clips, but the member of the flight crew who carried out the pre-flight walk-round should have spotted the error. If the clips are in anything but the closed and locked position, they are very prominent and easily visible. Lets hope this was not the cause of this mornings problems.

[londonlad]

Sorry openfly, are you an Airbus pilot?

Let’s all leave the theories to the AAIB and stop listening to the so called ‘experts’ on the web..

[transtraxman]

I have just read the BBC item about the incident on the A319.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22652718

I am curious to know that if the aircraft turned over Potters Bar and Billericay to land at Heathrow why it did not land at Stansted. The airline´s main concern (and thus the captain´s) is passenger safety.

Stansted was the nearest full sized and fully equipped airport where the plane could have landed without causing too much disruption and certainly less than at Heathrow to where the passengers could have been bussed back from Stansted. Or was it a case of the pilot making sure the aircraft arrived back at base, with all the savings that involves?

I think this was an incident which only underlines the necessity of a third runway at LHR both to reduce crowding and to provide an alternative runway in case of an emergency.

[SimonS1]

I do find that a bit far fetched really. An emergency taking place with live at stake, you really think getting the pilot was under pressure to get the plane back to base?

It does on the face of it look like Stansted would have been a better bet but maybe the climb/descent was easiest if they just circled and landed at LHR.

[Bath_VIP]

SimonS1

If you read details of other emergencies, it can be helpful for a pilot to land at an airport they are familiar with rather than adding additional stress to the emergency with an approach to an unfamiliar airport. Obviously there is a trade off here at work so it clearly depends on the nature of the emergency.

An example was the BA BAC111 in 1990 where the cockpit windscreen blew out and almost sucked out the captain. If you read the cockpit transcript, you will see the co-pilot initially requested a landing at Gatwick since he was familiar with this airport rather than Southampton which was closer. ATC directed him to Gatwick but after a few minutes, he changed his mind and landed at Southampton instead.

[openfly]

Londonlad…Might be!

[Author]

Posts