Sitting on my front wall in Stanwell that fine sunny evening my friend and I heard a young lad shout-look that planes on fire. Seeing the 707 oddly inbound to 23 ( they were taking off behind me on 28L we thought it was the evening sun on the bare metal below the cheat line. Moments later we realised it was plane on fire and on fire in a big way.
A very very very frightening sight as the plane sank below some rooflines because we knew what had to follow from all the films we had seen and sure enough what seemed like moments but was probably 2 minutes later a horrible soft 'boooom' and an immense black mushroom cloud. We thought everyone must have died and were very surprised when we found out what had happened and the loss of life was so small but so sad with the loss of the brave cabin crew who waited too long to try and save an elderly passanger.
A very very sobering experience and a sight I hope I never see again -40 years ago and I can remember every single detail of its passage through our field of view