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'Fuel freeze' likely cause of Heathrow plane crash
Rashid Razaq13 May 2008
The British Airways plane that crash landed at Heathrow may have suffered from "fuel freeze" caused by cold weather, according to investigators.
First Officer John Coward was forced to glide the Boeing 777 to safety after both engines failed at 600ft on flight BA38 earlier this year.
The inbound jet, arriving from China, dramatically missed the perimeter fence by inches before touching down on the grass. The undercarriage collapsed, but only one person from the 136 passengers and 16 crew was seriously injured.
The Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) interim report into the incident on 17 January has indicated a drop in temperature to -76C (-105F) while flying over Russia may have caused the fuel to thicken, depriving the engines of the additional thrust needed to land.
Further tests are due to be performed to determine the exact sequence of events. Investigators are focusing on a region of particularly cold air between the Urals and eastern Scandinavia.
Temperatures were found to have plummeted far lower than expected. But although the weather was unusually cold, it was not without precedent and has never been known to have caused problems on other flights.
The average freezing temperature of aviation fuel is -47C, but tests have shown that fuel on airliners does not turn to ice until -57C. Investigators' initial tests on the crashed plane found the fuel temperature never dropped below -34C during the flight.
But even if the fuel did not freeze it could have thickened enough to affect flow to the engine. Further tests will be carried out at Rolls Royce's engine plant in Derby and Boeing's factory in Seattle.
The AAIB has not called on Boeing or Rolls Royce to implement changes or withdraw any Boeing 777s from service.
A number of other theories, including one that radio signals from Gordon Brown's motorcade interfered with the plane's engines, have been ruled out. The Prime Minister was dropped off at Heathrow for a flight to China at the time of the crash landing.
Reader views (3)
I must say it was a brilliant job on the part of both captain and first officer to land where they did. I think everyone should be thankful it wasn't "fly-by-night' airlines or some such outfit. Good on you guy's, nice work. I do hope the AAIB does come up with the reason the engines went down. I'll certainly await that report.
- George Glen Dupuy, West Vancouver, Canada, 16/06/2008 22:26
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Fuel thickening? What rubbish! More like mental thickening by security-concocted drivel! The plane had hundreds if not further miles to go to defreeze any 'extra viscosity' from fancifully exaggerated cold-climate flight-paths, and if this were not so then all similarly exposed flights would suffer from the same problem and we would have more crashes everywhere than at terminal 5 during launch. What's wrong with 'goose feathers in the upper atmosphere'?
- Bob Dickson, Woolavington, England, 18/05/2008 11:11
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"radio signals from Gordon Brown's motorcade interfered with the plane's engines, have been ruled out"
Hahaha I bet it was that - trust Gordon Brown's incompetence to be involved somewhere!
He has destroyed and damaged everything else in this country so why not an aircraft...
I wouldn't put it past him.
- Daniel Howard, London,UK, 13/05/2008 15:17
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