Ice blamed for plane crash crewed by Worcester hero

10:10am Friday 5th September 2008

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ICE has been blamed for bringing down a plane crewed by Worcester’s hero pilot Peter Burkill.

A report has ruled that ice in the fuel system of the British Airways jet, which crashlanded at Heathrow in January, caused the engines to fail.

Investigators do not know how the ice formed, but dismissed the possibility of incorrect procedures by the crew.

Mr Burkill, of King Stephen’s Mount, St John’s, Worcester, was captain of the flight and hisquick thinking decision to change the angle of the Boeing 777’s wing flaps - hinged surfaces on the back of a wing - helped his co-pilot, John Coward, successfully land the craft.

The plane came to a stop on grass and 136 passengers plus 16 crew escaped without serious injury.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch believe ice restricted the flow of fuel to the engines, which is why they lost power less than a minute before touchdown.

Welcoming the interim report, Mr Burkhill's wife Maria said: "We've known, probably since 36 hours after the crash, that the crew was not to blame.

"We’ve known for a long time that there was a blockage in the system, but because no debris was found we had our suspicions that it was ice.

"While we’ve known that, it hasn’t been written down in a formal document until now. And that makes a big difference.

"Those two pilots saved all those lives, all the people on board and what could have been under the plane, but you still get people prattling on and suggesting it was the crew’s fault. Now, everybody knows that it was something in the system and not human error."

Mrs Burkill said they were not expecting the report to be so conclusive.

"Pete said I shouldn’t bother reading it because it would be mostly technical stuff," she said.

"Then I read it and realised it was naming ice as the cause. I text him and said he'd better read it too."

The report concluded: "The investigation has shown that the fuel flow to both engines was restricted - most probably due to ice within the fuel feed system.

"This ice is likely to have formed from water that occurred naturally in the fuel whilst the aircraft operated for a long period, with low fuel flows, in an unusually cold environment."

Investigators noted that the BA aircraft encountered very low temperatures en route from China to London and fuel in the main tanks had been below 0C for a long time.

The AAIB has recommended that airlines introduce interim measures for all Boeing 777s to reduce the risk of the problem happening again.