G-CPTN:
Originally Posted by cockpitvisit View Post
So how many people lost their lives because passengers wanted to take their hand baggage with them during an evacuation?
British Airtours Flight 28M.
Quote:
Takeoff was aborted and the captain ordered the evacuation of the aircraft.
Even though the evacuation of passengers and crew started the moment the aircraft came to a stop, many passengers remained trapped and dead within the fuselage.
15 of those that did escape had suffered serious injuries.
Went to two excellent presentations some weeks ago at TAS Manchester on this incident. Many thing came to light following the disaster, main ones being a change in the practice of the aircraft turning off the runway instead of stopping and maintaining the runway heading, The increase in the number of windsocks to give an indication of wind direction for the aircrew, use of floor lighting.
One of the main reasons of the evolution of the disaster was the turn off the runway which in combination with the thrust reverser activation pushed the flames up and over the left side of the fuselage, fire ingressed and the cabin became an inferno so severe that the fire crews had to withdraw. Another factor that there was no direct communication between the cabin crew and the flight deck and the design of the forward cabin areas which became a serious bottleneck to the evacuation.
There is far more to relate, the airfield water ring main was turned off for maintenance so the fire crews started to run out of water, poor command and control and non airfield fire crew did not have immediate access to the airfield. casualties taken to hospital by a non authorised method so the hospital didn't know they were coming. This all came out in the AAIB report. Fire crews were on scene well within the allotted time as their watch keeper saw the incident evolving and triggered the crew to respond before the aircraft had stopped and despite all their valiant efforts 56 people died.
Kegworth was the same which resulted in seat design changes because the seats at the time had a metal bar running under the seat cushion so when the aircraft impacted a number of people broke their femur's so a) were unable to evacuate and B) bled out into their legs.