BA hendelsen på Heathrow

Air safety officials deny claim that BA jet was close to catastrophe


UK authorities deny US investigators' claim that one engine shut down and one was on fire before Heathrow emergency landing


Workers examine the British Airways plane after the emergency landing at Heathrow. 

The UK air accident investigation board (AAIB) has denied reports from US safety authorities that the British Airways jet which made an emergency landing last week at Heathrow did so with one engine shut down and the other on fire.

The AAIB, which is expected to publish an interim report on Friday, took the rare step of denying reports from the website of the US national transportation safety board (NTSB), which is assisting the AAIB, on the incident.

British investigators did not, however, contradict a US claim that heavy protective coverings, or cowls, on both engines were torn from the plane on or after takeoff.

The information from the US government, if correct, suggests the plane came closer to potential catastrophe - making the incident much more serious than so far revealed, safety experts say.

The London-Oslo flight BA762 returned to land at Heathrow soon after takeoff on the morning of Friday 24 May. Passengers on board and witnesses below saw smoke billowing from the plane, which landed safely, with the 75 passengers and crew evacuated via emergency slides.

The NTSB is assisting the investigation because the engines were manufactured for Airbus in the US. On its website, it noted that the BA plane saw "the engine cowls from both International Aero Engines V2500 engines separate and fall on to the runway. The pilots reported that they shut down one engine, there was a fuel leak, and that they were returning."

The NTSB continued: "The pilots subsequently reported that one engine was shut down and the other engine was on fire." The AAIB later asserted that this information was incorrect.

It has emerged that Airbus has noted 32 similar incidents on its A320 family of planes, including the A319, in which the engine cowls - roughly equivalent to the bonnet of a car - have flown open or detached in flight, causing potentially serious damage to the plane. The manufacturer issued a safety briefing last year, urging crews to be aware of the risk of cowls not being properly closed.

The AAIB's full conclusion is likely to be months away, but it will issue a special bulletin on Friday. BA said it would not comment on the incident but was conducting an investigation, co-operating fully with the AAIB and awaiting its full report.

David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight Global, said: "This was more serious than we realised at the time - this was a serious incident. If you have fires in the engine, and cowls falling from both engines, that is very dangerous." He added that the crew did well to avert loss of life on board and under the flight path.

Passenger Jean Ralphs, who was sitting in seat 3F, says she saw an engine cowl detach. "I saw vapour streaming off the right-hand engine and a colourless liquid streaming from the exposed pipes. It was obvious that it was only a matter of time before the engine caught fire.