BA085 21st April, Engine Failure?

[tng242]

Thank you for all your information. While I cannot be sure that the aircraft had rotated, my memory was of the attitude of the aircraft was rotating, and certainly seemed nose up when things started going a little pear shaped. The bangs were each associated with a flash of flame from the engine tailpipe (stbd outer engine). I remember while travelling to the airport that there was a stiff crosswind and thinking we might have an interesting first few moments of flight, so a plain compressor stall seems the most probable cause, though after over 30 years of frequent business flying, this is my first incident of this nature. Although I wasn't paying much attention until that point (I definitely was after it), my impression was that we were really quite late in the take off run and my first thought was of how much runway was left. If, as you say that once the aircraft has rotated (and it was completely full and probably quite heavy) you are committed to take off, then clearly we weren't quite there yet, but there wasn't much runway left by the time we stopped. Certainly the crew's response was extremely rapid as the throttles were shut within no more than a couple of seconds of the 2/3 bangs, and the braking was harder any I have experienced in an aircraft. It is interesting that others comment that there would be no instrument indication of this event, (unless of course the engine lunched itself)

thanks for all your comments!