The Story of the Plane That Set All 4 Engines on Fire Due to Volcanic Ash

The dates were June 24, 1982. The British Airways plane was making its scheduled flight from London Heathrow Airport to Auckland. He would have 5 stops along the way: Mumbai, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth and Melbourne.

Most of the passengers had traveled for almost a day, and it had been a tiring journey for everyone. The cockpit team is had taken over the aircraft from Kuala Lumpur. So the team was quite vigorous.

Crew; They were Captain Eric Moody, senior mate Roger Greaves and senior engineer Berry Townley Freeman.

on the plane There were 247 passengers and approximately 90 tons of fuel. The weather was very clear and beautiful as if what we are about to tell could never happen. The captain of the plane, which was rising 11,300 meters, was walking on the plane to move a little to stretch his numb legs. Until I saw strange smoke coming from the engine.

Strangely enough, smoking was allowed on planes back then. First of all, this smoke cigarette smoke Although it was thought that it could be, it was very intense and different from cigarette smoke. When the captain entered the flight deck he couldn’t believe what he saw.

windshield of the plane a bright cloud of fire It was covered and everywhere was bright.

What they saw was St. It was nothing but Elmo fever.

This fire is a harmless discharge of static electricity on a metal surface. It is seen periodically on aircraft as well as on ships. This is exactly where the problem started. When the captain looked at the weather radar, he saw that there were no storm clouds, on the contrary, the weather was quite clear.

Soon the presence of a strange cloud surrounding the plane was noticed. vice captain, He had turned on the engine ignition lights and the seat belt warning light. As the flight continued, smoke began to accumulate in the passenger cabin.

When the passengers looked out the window, they noticed a bright light on the wings of the plane.

As the plane flew in a cloud of bright white light, its temperature began to rise. When it was seen that engine number four caught fire, the crew, in order not to lose too much time, He activated the fire extinguishers, cut off the fuel transmission and shut down the engine.

But just 1 minute later the other The engines started to catch fire one by one. The captain calculated that they could glide 24 km for every 1.5 km they descended. This meant that the plane could only glide for 23 minutes.

No one on the crew had ever encountered such a situation and they were astonished by what happened.

Passengers could see flames surrounding the plane. The plane was about 10 km above the ocean and their engines were on fire. While the smoke continued to spread in the cabin, it was not unexpected for all 4 engines to stop.

Helper Pilot Roger Greaves, Even though he tried to call for help, there was difficulty in communication. Another aircraft in the flight sent a distress call to Jakarta, allowing controllers to understand the situation.

The southern coast of Indonesia’s Java Island is covered with high mountains. Therefore, the altitude at which they could safely cross the coast had to be no less than 3,500 meters. It was obvious that the plane couldn’t fly that far, so the crew He was planning to land in the Indian Ocean.

At this moment Captain Moody said, He explained the situation calmly to calm the passengers. After the incident, it would be said how effective this speech was in calming people down.

The air pressure had dropped, and while the passengers were putting on their oxygen masks, they thought that this flight was their last journey.

People were at a point where they couldn’t breathe. The captain started diving to reach the height where people could breathe normally. The plane, which reached 4,100 meters, was prepared to dive into the ocean. Just as the flight was falling, a miracle happened thanks to the experience and coolness of the flight crew.

Autopilot in simulator 4 usually shut down when the engine stopped, but this time it remained on, which meantIt was a situation that had not been encountered before. Engine number 4 started working again, and when the fall speed decreased, the other three engines strangely started again.

When they rise a little, St. They encountered Elmo fever again.

While all this is happening an engine stopped againFearing that the same thing would happen again, the team decided to immediately land at the nearest airport. Did you think it ended here?

While landing in Jakarta, the cockpit crew could not see anything through the windshield this time. The crew had to land the plane manually. The plane’s landing lights were not working, they could only see the runway lights from a tiny spot. fortunately The plane made a soft landing and not even one of the passengers was injured!

So what would happen if there wasn’t an experienced and calm flight crew?

The investigation carried out after the incident explained why the plane had such a problem. The problem was that the plane went inside the erupting Mount Galunggung. Ash from the mountain clogged the engines and fogged the windshields. After a while, it caused the engines to stop. When the engines cooled, the ashes solidified and flew away, so the engines were able to start again.

after the incident Mount Galunggung The airspace above it was closed. The flight crew was declared heroes and awarded a medal.

Malfunctions do not always lead to death; as long as where events develop calmness and professionalism Let’s step in.

For those who want to watch the animation video of the flight:

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