BA 777 lands short of runway at Heathrow

**flyboy 28** · 2008-01-20, 10:36 PM

Heathrow's new safety measures-

**Derf** · 2008-01-21, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by flyboy 28

Heathrow's new safety measures-

You are sooo bad! :borat:

**Derf** · 2008-01-24, 01:28 PM

Here is a clip from an email I got.... Not saying any more than this right now.

"During the flight, Beijing to London, more fuel burned than expected. However, the pilots decided to continue to their destination (Heathrow) knowing they would have less than the Alternate Fuel requirement (enough fuel to fly to an alternate airport and hold 30 minutes at 1500ft). The aircraft's load was less than 50% so the amount of Alternate Fuel needed was probably lowered during the flight, thus making the Captain legal

to continue to London with less alternate fuel than was on his flight plan. That's legal procedure considering weather, runway and delay situations.

The result was a very light fuel load during the final approach to Heathrow. However, using maximum flap setting for landing increased the nose attitude to a level where the remaining fuel ran to the rear of the fuel tank and the fuel pumps were sucking air and unable to supply sufficient fuel to keep the engines running. This resulted in both engines flaming out on final approach, along with a complete loss of electricity and hydraulics.

On the Airbus we have procedures saying that when low on fuel do not use full flaps for landing, due to the higher nose attitude. I'm no B777 expert but I would guess there is a similar Boeing recommendation/procedure. The pilots either forgot this, simply ignored it, or for some reason, weren't aware of the danger they were in. "

Not sure of its origin.....but it comes from someone I have a lot of respect for and has never
steered me wrong yet.

**Derf** · 2008-01-24, 01:30 PM

I really hope this is wrong...it just does not sound possible.

**PhilDernerJr** · 2008-01-24, 01:31 PM

As said earlier, that makes no sense, as I've never heard of both engines losing power from no fuel at the same moment.

**mirrodie** · 2008-01-24, 01:34 PM

Flyboy, I liked that :)

Im just glad everyone came from the crash living and breathing and that it didnt come down on the pub where we stay when in London.

Our friend at the pub said she could not hear the impact. However, she was feeding the rescue crews on rotating shifts all day.

I can;t speculate but can't wait to hear what happened. I'm sure its a AIR CRASH INVESTIGATION episode in a few years that nnoe here will miss.

**h2opunk1822** · 2008-01-31, 07:44 PM

A friend of mine found this.. Found it interesting about the Incident!

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/fligh ... den-1.html

**PhilDernerJr** · 2008-01-31, 08:15 PM

Very interesting stuff. Frozen fuel not getting to the engines? Maybe.

**hiss srq** · 2008-01-31, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by Phil D.

Very interesting stuff. Frozen fuel not getting to the engines? Maybe.

Heated tanks or prist anyone?

**Matt Molnar** · 2008-01-31, 11:35 PM

Very interesting. The frozen fuel situation seems unlikely to me, as just like regular fuel exhaustion, it seems unlikely that both engines would ingest ice at the same time. The new software sounds like the most likely suspect to me, but we'll see.