If an exceptional speechwriter had spent a week composing the message, he or she couldn't have done better. The events around one British Airways flight in 1982 reveal the potential dangers of this sort of dust. same chemical used to bleach hair from bottles. Moody, first officer Roger Greaves and flight engineer Barry Townley-Freeman had no idea what had caused the unprecedented and statistically improbable multiple failure. Eric Moody THE HAMPSHIRE pilot of the infamous 1982 British Airways Flight 9 incident today said he believed the Malaysian Airlines MH370 was brought down deliberately. MOODY: Yeah, they were. This raised the possibility BA9 might have to attempt an ocean ditching if the engines could not be restarted by 12,000 feet. We love you. The great rewilding debate should we be returning eagles and wolves to our national parks? The crew members of the incident segment had boarded the aircraft in Kuala Lumpur, while many of the passengers had been aboard since the flight began in London.[2]. This is your captain speaking. Captain Eric Moody was later praised for a cabin announcement that was described as "a masterpiece of understatement.". Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health. While the crew on the flight deck were frantically trying to figure out the cause of this freak failure, many passengers were largely unaware that anything was wrong. There was no book for us, he says from his home in England. Moody throttled back; however, engine number two surged again and was shut down. Many passengers, fearing for their lives, wrote notes to relatives. Lancaster survived, suffering a few fractures and frostbite. You have entered an incorrect email address! The airliner, flown by Captain Eric Moody, lost thrust from all four engines at 37,000ft. The restaurants actually worth dining at near 11 of Europe's biggest tourist traps, Sully,a veteran pilot with 19,663 hours of flying experience, revealed to Telegraph Travel last year, this Cathay Pacific service from Surabaya Juanda International Airport, This is precisely what happened to one Flybe captain. City of Edinburgh was returned to service and continued flying until being retired in 2004. I don't - I'm not that demonstrative, no. "It was, yeah, a little bit frightening.". Sorry. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. Moody displaying the cool-headed nature required of a pilot made the following announcement to his passengers: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We have a small problem. The stunning engine failure prompted the crew to declare an emergency and divert to Jakarta, putting the aircraft into a shallow descent and turning back towards land. But he took voluntary redundancy in August 2009 and criticised BA over its handling of the incident, claiming he had been "hung out to dry". "; The passenger jet effectively turned into a glider, Capt Moody accepting an award after his safe handling of the crisis, Clare Wickett, a flight attendant on BA 009, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites, How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire, Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit, How Captain Eric Moodys brush with volcanic ash became aircraft lore-2 hrs ago, Why is volcanic ash a threat? Born in Savannah, Ga and growing up in Hinesville, I was always close As pressure within the cabin fell, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling an automatic emergency measure to make up for the lack of air. He just wanted to get the plane on the ground. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. Little has changed since our flight. Hair gets its colour from two types of melanin pigment eumelanin which dictates how dark the hair is, and pheomelanin which determines how red or yellow it is. I trust you are not in too much distress.. We have a small problem. Moody displaying the cool-headed nature required of a pilot made the following announcement to his passengers: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. And then 30 seconds later the other two started up. The captain, Eric Moody, tried to reassure passengers with the following statement: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Shortly before touchdown, "his prosthetic limb became detached from the yoke clamp, depriving him of control of the aircraft," said an Air Accidents Investigation Branch report. Airmanship may sound old school but former British Airways captain Eric Moody argues it is just as important now as it was when he and his crew struggled to restart all 4 engines on his Boeing 747-200 in 1982. There was plenty of time to think and there were three of us, Moody says. Copyright Civil Aviation Safety Authority Australia, Captain Moodys wisdom: the aeroplane might break any minute. Reflecting on the chilling events of that flight 28 years later, Capt Moody, who lives in Camberley in Surrey, shows the sort of understatement characteristic of those in his profession. Dec 2021 - Present1 year 2 months. However, it soon began to grow thicker and had an ominous odour of sulphur. The unusual display and, it would turn out, the engine failures, were due to volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt Galunggung, south-east of Jakarta. We had a really good team there when it came to experience and airmanship, he says of BA9. After a British Airways plane caught fire on the runway in Las Vegas, Chris Henkey joined the illustrious ranks of Sully Sullenberger and a host of others. It worked, but meant the aircraft looked certain to miss the runway. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted as well. He obtained his private pilot licence at 17 flying Hornet Moths, Tiger Moths and Chipmunks and from there it was off to the BOAC training college at Hamble. Here are five other pilots who managed remarkable emergency landings. The plane was a write-off - the nose gear collapsed, the right main gear separated from the aircraft, penetrating a fuel tank, and the left main gear was pushed up through the wing - but just one passenger had suffered a serious injury by the time it came to a halt beside the threshold markings at the start of the runway. It was only after a Singapore Airlines 747 was forced to shut down three of its engines while flying through the same area nineteen days later (13 July) that Indonesian authorities closed the airspace permanently and rerouted airways to avoid the area; a watch was set up to monitor clouds of ash. The puzzle of whether your hair can turn grey sounds like a simple one for medical science to solve, but its not. Passengers who had a view out the aircraft windows noted that the engines were unusually bright, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect. Im Captain Eric Moody, a native of coastal Georgia and a full time resident of Jekyll Island for over 25 years with 16 of those years has been spent as a fishing guide. As he climbed the stairs of the Jumbo he noticed puffs of "smoke" billowing from the vents in the floor and detected an acrid smell. Out of the 175 people on board, 125 died in the accident. Reports suggested there were a total of 413 passengers and 26 crew on board the two planes. [1] The phenomenon persisted after Moody returned from the lavatory. Looking out the side windows of the cockpit, the crew noticed the front of the engines were glowing as if lit inside. Gliding as low as 12,000 feet, they turned back towards Indonesia. Now nicknamed the Gimli Glider, Air Canada flight 143 was flying from Montreal to Edmonton on 23 July 1983, when the plane ran out of fuel at 41,000ft. When he opened the door to the cockpit he saw the windscreen ablaze with a St Elmo's fire - a discharge of static electricity. Its a common tale, even said to have happened to Marie Antoinette. So the story had a happy ending. It was scrapped at Bournemouth Airport, Dorset, England, in 2009. "That's not unusual in high wispy cloud. The aircraft was taken out of service in February 2004; in 2009, the then 30-year-old aircraft was scrapped. Sullenberger, now retired, speaks internationally on airline safety. Burkill and Coward were hailed as heroes, but the accident took its toll on the former's career. He strongly believes pilots should learn to think beyond the process of following checklists and procedures by rote. The crew received various awards, including the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air and medals from the British Air Line Pilots Association. We were down at 12,000 feet then. It wasnt until later, when he, his crew and the 247 passengers on board the flight, were safely back on the ground, that Moody discovered the cause of the narrowly averted catastrophe volcanic ash. Read about our approach to external linking. They calculated the giant Boeing could glide for less than 25 minutes from 37,000 feet and there was a problem with high mountains between the aircraft and Jakarta. We have a small problem. So aircraft radar won't pick it up because the wavelength of the aircraft radar is too long. The pilot of a British Airways jet that was forced to abandon its takeoff after an engine burst into flames has been lauded for averting a potential disaster. She managed to trace some 200 of the 247 passengers on the flight, and went on to marry a fellow survivor, James Ferguson, who had been seated in the row in front of her. "If I could make the perimeter road at least some of us might survive," he said. It was scrapped at Bournemouth Airport, Dorset, England, in 2009. We have a small problem. A build-up of ice crystals had caused a restriction in the flow of fuel. "Not a day goes by without it crossing my mind," he told the BBC last year. In his calmest pilots voice Moody made an announcement: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, This is your captain speaking. The only way to go faster, and avoiding stalling, was to take a steeper approach. The near-miss was compared to the 1977 Tenerife Airport disaster, the deadliest aviation accident of all time, in which 583 people were killed after two Boeing 747s collided on the runway. With nerves of steel, the captain, Eric Moody, miraculously landed the plane. If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. The plane landed safety in Jakarta despite the almost total lack of visibility. The pilot chose to continue to accelerate and performed a steep take-off, avoiding a collision by just 19 metres (62 feet). Jan 31 Saints and Broncos are finalizing compensation in return for Super Bowl-winning HC Sean Payton, sources tell ESPN. Broncos fans: 0:11 1.6M views Following the incident, the crew and passengers formed the Galunggung Gliding Club as a means to keep in contact. In September 2009 the environmental group 10:10 bought the fuselage of City Of Edinburgh to be made into tags. Find out more, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, Heroic pilots earn praise - and sometimes even bundles of cash, Chesley Sullenberger III: great name, great pilot, Senior First Officer John Coward and Captain Peter Burkhill, Two China Eastern Airlines planes were involved in the near-miss, The five best spa hotels in the New Forest, Why Australia is the greatest country for wildlife lovers, How cyclists are taking over Europe's cities and why it's a good thing. Eric Moody THE HAMPSHIRE pilot of the infamous 1982 British Airways Flight 9 incident today said he believed the Malaysian Airlines MH370 was brought down deliberately. The engines had enough electrical power to restart because one generator and the onboard batteries were still operating; electrical power was required for ignition of the engines. "For an aircraft travelling at about 125mph, that's carnage. Minutes later there were no working engines left. And there's no doubt if we'd gone to the bottom of the Java Trench of Indonesia, which is about, I think, six or seven thousand feet deep, I think to this day I'd have still be getting the blame. All rights reserved. Engine number 2 exploded over Indonesia, damaging a wing and causing a fuel tank fire, forcing the plane, an A380 with 469 people on board, to make an emergency landing in Singapore. Once the flight cleared the ash cloud, the crew was able to restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage.[12]. All four engines have stopped. WebMoody was then transferred to FBI Headquarters, OC Section, Criminal Investigative Division. Check out her hotel! Moody's announcement was actually more than that. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung (approximately 180 kilometres (110mi) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia), resulting in the failure of all four engines. All four engines on a Boeing 747 failed at 37,000ft after the plane flew through volcanic ash while passing over Jakarta on 24 June 1982. A flight attendant grabbed Lancaster to keep him from flying away. Is there a physiological process through which extreme stress can cause hair to change colour this fast? A plume of volcanic ash from Iceland has led to flights across the UK being grounded. It's a major hassle when your prosthetic arm has just fallen off. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. Stay up to date with what you want to know. The City of Edinburgh had been cruising at 37,000 feet over the ocean on a June night w Life-threatening situations are not only rare, but unpredictable and no ethics committee is going to let you induce a sufficiently terrifying experience in a lab volunteer. WebPresident, Moodys Analytics: Michael West: President, Moodys Investors Service: John J. Goggins: Executive Vice President & General Counsel: Senior Vice Presidents; Maral Kazanjian: Chief People Officer: Scott Kenney: Risk Management & Chief Audit Executive: David Platt: Chief Strategy Officer Caroline Sullivan All four engines have stopped. We owe it to all who fly to act on what we have learned and not just let important recommendations gather dust on a shelf., He added: I am still very glad that we were able to save every life in such a sudden and intense crisis for which we had never been specifically trained.. All four engines have stopped. One of the first signs of a problem came when smoke began to accumulate in the cabin. -16 hrs ago, Why Volcanic Ash Is So Dangerous-27 hrs ago, How a volcano brought Europe to a standstill, How volcanoes occur, in graphics and text, How elephants helped to shape human history, by David Cannadine, Justin Webb on America's love affair with progress. Eric Moody also showed little sign of being terrified as he managed to make an emergency landing at Jakarta airport later he discovered that a plume of ash from a volcano had knocked out all four engines. We could find the centreline of the runway but I had no glideslope, he said. -3 hrs ago, What volcanic ash does to planes-13 hrs ago, Why is volcanic ash a threat to planes? The Boeing 747's engines caught on fire and stopped, causing the plane to go down. But the flight engineer summed it up at the time when he said: That was like thinking through treacle.. The reason for the failure was not immediately apparent to the crew or ground control. [3] Flight 9 was not the first encounter with this eruption a Garuda DC-9 had encountered ash on 5 April 1982.[8]. We finish on a slightly comical note. In his calmest pilots voice Moody made an announcement: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, This is your captain speaking. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Burkill took the instinctive decision to bring in the aircraft's flaps in a last-ditch attempt to reduce drag and give the plane a chance of clearing Hatton Cross. The only training we had gotten for a water landing was reading a few paragraphs in a manual and having a brief classroom discussion, he said. The loss of power caused the plane's speed to drop alarmingly. We traveled 80 nautical miles forward, and 15,000 feet or so. New York, New York, United States. He says pilots of his era expected things to go wrong and thought ahead about what they would do when that happened. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I trust you are not in too much distress.". Eventually, the engines came back to life after the molten ash that clogged the engines solidified and broke off. British Airways, including its subsidiaries, has been involved in just three fatal accidents - and none since 1985. [9] G-BDXH's engineless flight entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft. WebDespite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement": Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. an industry where women are still an extreme minority, part of the planes windshield came loose. SIMON: They are several hundred people that I bet feel they owe their lives to you and your crew. I trust you are not in too much distress.". And thats something thats not changed at all. Capt Moody was piloting a 263-seater British Airways Boeing 747 flight from London to Auckland in June 1982 when he ran into an ash plume erupting from Mount Galunggung in Java, Indonesia. Moody and his crew began trying to restart the engines, even though the number 4 engine was technically not allowed. WebEric Moody (Captain) Continued flying for British Airways until retiring in 1996 Roger Greaves (First Officer) Unknown Barry Townley-Freeman (Flight Engineer) Has since retired from British Airways Fire Fight (Air Canada 797) Donald Cameron (Captain) I trust you are not in too much distress. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The plane, with first officer, the ironically named John Coward, at the controls, landed around 270 metres short of the runway, just beyond the A30. Effective date of retirement is no later than August 1, 2022. The events around one British Airways flight in 1982 reveal the potential dangers of this sort of dust. The best explanation for it is not that the hair changes colour, but that the pigmented hairs fall out. Jan 31 Saints and Broncos are finalizing compensation in return for Super Bowl-winning HC Sean Payton, sources tell ESPN. Broncos fans: 0:11 1.6M views The subsequent explosive decompression saw part of the floor at the rear of the cabin give way, severing a control cable and disabling one of the engines. Moody displaying the cool-headed nature required of a pilot made the following announcement to his passengers: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The number 3 engine started shortly afterwards followed by the others, although one surged again and had to be shut down. Its just one of those things that you gain or you learn from other people and experience.. WebCaptain Eric Moody was later praised for a cabin announcement that was described as "a masterpiece of understatement." Week composing the message, he says from his home in England about health. Speechwriter had spent a week composing the message, he says from his home in England led to flights the... Threat to planes eagles and wolves to our national parks fuselage of city Edinburgh! 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