BA flight to Athens returns to Heathrow (flying across London) after engine fire soon after take off
A British Airways flight was forced to turn back to Heathrow on Weds 6th September after witnesses reported seeing flames coming out of the engine. The Boeing 777, bound for Athens, headed back to Heathrow within minutes of taking off. Flight tracking website FlightRadar24, showed a graphic of the aircraft departing from Heathrow, circling around Maidstone in Kent and then returning. The plane had the engine on fire closed down, so flew right over London in order to land (landing from the east towards the west). Airlive tweeted: “British Airways Boeing 777 (reg. G-VIIH) returning to Heathrow with engine #2 shut down.The flight departed as scheduled at 1.44 this afternoon but was forced to declare an emergency and return to British Airways London hub.” British Airways had not confirmed the fire but said they were looking into the incident. Speaking to The Independent a British Airways spokesperson said: “The flight landed safely after returning to the airport, and our highly trained engineers are investigating what happened.” This is a reminder that is it very far from ideal for planes limping, damaged, back to Heathrow – across miles of densely populated London. This should remind people of the safety issues of the location of Heathrow – with the risk even higher with a 3rd runway.
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BA flight returns to Heathrow after engine fire
The diverted jet was bound for Athens
BY RAVNEET AHLUWALIA
Wednesday 6 September 2017 (Independent)
A British Airways flight was forced to turn back to Heathrow after witnesses reported seeing flames coming out of the engine.
The Boeing 777, bound for Athens, headed back to the airport within minutes of taking off. Flight tracking website AirNav, showed a graphic of the aircraft departing from Heathrow, circling around Maidstone in Kent and then returning.
Airlive tweeted: “British Airways Boeing 777 (reg. G-VIIH) returning to Heathrow with engine #2 shut down.The flight departed as scheduled at 1.44 this afternoon but was forced to declare an emergency and return to British Airways London hub.
Social media users took to twitter to share their eyewitness accounts. KaiOelfke wrote: “I saw flames coming out of the right engine a few times. I could see the takeoff from the Cathay lounge.”
Krisbob added: “It was covering a flight to Athens, flames seen coming from engine 2 and returning to Heathrow now.”
British Airways have not confirmed the fire but have said they are looking into the incident. Speaking to The Independent a British Airways spokesperson said: “The flight landed safely after returning to the airport, and our highly trained engineers are investigating what happened.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority.
“We are currently looking after the affected customers and are organising a replacement flight for them to continue their journey to Athens later on Wednesday afternoon.
“We are sorry for the delays they have faced.”
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Pensioner recounts horrifying moment BA plane ‘bursts into flames’ just moments after take-off from Heathrow
Geoff Lye, who was travelling with his partner, said he was ‘praying’ after ‘six loud’ bangs caused the plane to judder mid-air
BY SCARLET HOWES (Mirror)
14 SEP 2017
A plane caught fire just moments after take-off at London Heathrow airport. A pensioner has recounted in horrifying detail how ‘six loud bangs’ caused the aircraft to shake mid-air Monday night.
Geoff Lye, who was travelling with his partner, said: “We just took off and there was a bang and it was the engine next to me.
“There was this huge noise and a judder, and then there were about six more bangs. It was one bang after another.”
The BA plane flying from London to Athens was forced to turn back after the captain allegedly had to shut down the right engine.
Lye, 67, told The Evening Standard : “I’m an atheist but even I was praying. Our hearts were racing.
“Passengers behind me said they could see flames kicking out from the engine.”
Lye told the paper he will never fly with the airline again after what was supposed to be a routine flight turned into a 33-hour ‘nightmare’.
He claimed his ‘hellish’ journey began last Tuesday when his 1.15pm flight to Athens was cancelled due to a technical fault with the plane.
A replacement jet turned up at 5pm, by which time the crew had gone over their allocated working hours and were unable to fly to Athens.
Once again the flight was cancelled.
Disgruntled passengers were given vouchers for a free night’s stay in a London hotel and told to return to Heathrow the following day to board a third plane.
However, moments after take-off, at 1.40pm on Wednesday, the starboard engine juddered, made a series of loud bangs and caught fire.
The fourth plane took off without drama at 7.40pm on Wednesday and Lye did not reach Athens until the small hours of Thursday morning, local time.
The flight should have taken about four hours.
BA have been approached for comment.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pensioner-recounts-horrifying-moment-ba-11172675
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