Just been watching the pictures on BBC News 24. The B777 touched down immediately in front of the LOC antenna, in the grass, before the threshold of Rwy 27L. The a/c then slid several hundred meters before coming to a stop on the threshold of Rwy 27L, skewed approx 45 deg to the right of the centreline.
The main undercarriage have detached and the nosegear appears to have partially compressed into the airframe. The main gear structures have punctured up through the wings. The engines are damaged but I was unable to make out whether they had been rotating at the time they started to pick up mud and debris. Flaps appear to be deployed but unable to tell if full flap.
There are two very deep furrows where the a/c touched down in the mud and then long furrows to where the a/c came to a stop. From the aerial shots on the BBC following the furrows, there are remnants of the main gear including at least one leg and bogie still attached. Frangible approach lights have been taken out from LOC antenna to threshold 27L.
This is not a little incident. This was literally a crash landing and thankfully there are no fatalities. It will be interesting to find out why this B777 landed so short and so heavily from the runway.
Anyone know if an emergency was declared before the landing?
Further to the post above this one, the wings were not torn off the a/c and the a/c most definitely touched down with the landing gear deployed in the down position. Almost certainly helped to dissipate a lot of the initial energy when they detached.
Also, usual "this is not terror related" hype. I wonder why they don't mention that it was also not "elephant" related! Whatever!
Live BBC coverage with footage from helicopter