January 17, 2008

engineers and scientists react to the air crash at Heathrow airport

A British Airways Boeing 777 aircraft crash-landed at Heathrow airport following a probable power failure.

Jeff Jupp, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

“It certainly looks consistent with a total power failure on the approach – except for emergency power for flight controls. Very unusual! Everything from then on appears to have gone as it should, landing gear ripped away, skidded on bottom of engines and fuselage, slides deployed and a good evacuation, no fire. The reason for the power loss is a mystery at this stage, just possibly a strike by flock of birds or fuel failure but one really shouldn’t try and speculate.”

Dr Scott Steedman, Vice President, Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

“This incident shows how well the plane was engineered and how well the evacuation systems worked so that there were mercifully few injuries.”