According to a BBC report, six people were taken to hospital
with minor injuries as a result of a crash landing of a British Airways Boeing
(BA) 777 at London's
Heathrow airport Thursday, which 136 passengers onboard.
Scotland Yard said the incident involving flight BA038 from Beijing was not
terror-related. A chartered BA Boeing 747 due to fly Prime Minister Gordon
Brown to Beijing
for and official visit was held up as a result of the incident.
As passengers spoke of a "lucky escape" via the
plane's emergency chutes, BA declined to comment on a BBC report that the jet
had lost power and avionics in the approach to Heathrow.
"We can confirm that flight BA038, a Boeing 777
arriving from Beijing, carried out an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport
today at 12:42 [p.m. local time]," the airport authority says on its
website. "Heathrow’s emergency services attended the scene and passengers
were immediately evacuated and taken to a reception center at the airport. The
Air Accidents Investigation Branch is attending the scene."
With its undercarriage already rolled out, the plane came
down several hundred metres short of the runway, and within metres of a perimeter
fence separating the airport from a busy perimeter road.
Passengers said there been no warning but there was "no
panic" on board as the crew conducted an orderly evacuation.
Officials said delays were expected after one of Heathrow's
two runways was closed. An air exclusion zone was imposed to help regulate
traffic at one of the world's busiest airports.
BA chief Willie Walsh, while praising the crew for doing an
"excellent job," declined to comment on the possible cause of the
accident, which is being to be probed by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch
(AAIB).
“It would be inappropriate for me to speculate as to the
likely cause of this incident,” British Airways Chief Executive Officer Willie
Walsh said in a statement.
© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia