Bedlam at Heathrow ensues, as British Airways 777 shorts landing

by Grant Martin on

London‘s Heathrow Airport was cast into disarray today when a British Airways (BA) 777 landed short of runway 27 and nosedived into the earth before the tarmac. Several landing gear were sheared off while the airframe sustained significant damage.

Amazingly, there were no casualties in the disaster, with only a couple dozen passengers being taken to the hospital for minor injuries and one concussion. The rest of the passengers deplaned from the emergency slides. It is perhaps a testament to the pilot’s aptitude and performance during the emergency that nothing worse happened.

According to the most recent reports, the aircraft appears to have lost power on approach, resulting in the plane gliding silently under only mechanical control onto its belly.

Operations at Heathrow shut down completely following the incident, with a graduated return to operations over the course of the day. Despite the resumption, dozens of flights were canceled, stranding passengers inside of the already cramped terminal and overtaking lounges. I can only imagine how pleasant that was.

Heathrow expects to resume operations tomorrow as the investigation continues.

Plane Crashes onto I-95, Pilot Found Sitting in Cockpit

by Iva Skoch on

This is pretty unbelievable. Bob Roberts (love the name) crashed his small plane yesterday shortly after take-off onto the shoulder of Interstate 95 near Fort Lauderdale, FL. The rescue team found him sitting upright in the cockpit, injured but OK, while the rest of the plane was totaled. I bet Bob started believing in God that instant, if he hadn’t already.

Nobody on the ground was hurt, although I am sure the highway was backed up for hours as a result of some world-class rubbernecking.

Kentucky Plane Crash

by Adrienne Wilson on

I wasn’t going to blog about this at first, but then I thought travel isn’t always happy-go-lucky. Sometimes you get a flat, stuck in a ditch, held hostage, placed in the center of two hostile warring countries or your flight plunges from the atmosphere like a torpedo to your untimely death. Sure these aren’t the scenarios any of us want to think about before launching into the big bold world, but it’s reality. It happens. Your own only hope can be living to tell it or better – that it just doesn’t happen to you.

Reading the details on Comair Flight 5191, which crashed yesterday morning about half a mile from the end of the runaway at the Lexington airport feels so bone-chilling. Apparently the plane ventured down a runaway that was far too short for take-off, the plane was barely airborne, then came crashing down. Other details which have more than a few eye-brows raised, include the condition of the runway: poor lighting and severely cracked concrete. Were these not HUGE red flags? Investigators will be taking a look at what went on in the tower, how many controllers were on duty and if they saw the plane head down the wrong runway.

Of the 50 passengers onboard only one survived and is in critical condition. There were 47 passengers and 3 crew members. One couple had just gotten married the following night in a fairy-tale type ceremony with horse-drawn carriages and 300 friends in attendance. Another passenger, a member for Habitat for Humanity, Pat Smith, was on his way down to Gulfport, MS to help rebuild homes. So very tragic and sad.

via CNN and AOL