Crash at Brum
 

From Sky News a report that a 'Challenger' has crashed on take-off from BHX.


Regards
Exeng

I can't confirm the type, but there were 3 crew and 2 pax onboard. Hope all ok.....

Was a Challenger 604 routing BHX-BGR.

[ 04 January 2002: Message edited by: rentaghost ]</p>

Challenger 604, I have got the reg but I don't think it would be prudent to post it just yet. Lets hope all is well, a sad start to the year.

Unfortunately sounds like all are not OK. A/C is on fire near the runway and radio report suggests people have been killed.

Obviously causing severe disruption this afternoon @ BHX

Is BHX closed?

Yes BHX is closed.

Good move Rentaghost, thank you for your prompt repsonse. Very sad news.

From the Beeb...

Four people are feared dead after a private jet crashed while taking off from Birmingham International Airport.
One other person remains unaccounted for, according to West Midlands Fire Service.

Three crew and two passengers are understood to have been on board the aircraft, a nine-seater Challenger.

Initial reports say the plane clipped its wings on take-off.

A full-scale emergency response is now under way on runway 15 at the airport.

Emergency crews were alerted to the incident at 1210, a fire service spokesman added.

More soon.

4 people confirmed dead, and the airport is closed.

1 other person unaccounted for at this time.

<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1742000/1742404.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1742000/1742404.stm</a>

Condolences to the families of those who lost their lives

I see the BBC are reporting that the aircraft was operated by "Canadair" - Sharp as ever! Why do they always feel obliged to print things before they check the facts out?? Pure Muppettry.

Sadly, BBC now confirm 5 fatalities.

Before anyone asks what the weather was like :

EGBB 041220Z 14006KT 7000 BKN008 M02/M03 Q1026

DROGNA
Stop messing about and post the Reg. please. Any accident is very sad but you might help put the minds of those of us who have mates who drive 604's at rest. If you've got information then please post it, that's what pprune is for. I'm off to TFS in a minute and don't want to spend the next few hours wondering.

Aircraft reported as N90AG, a Challenger 604 c/n 5414 registered to Fleet National Bank at Atlanta-Peachtree on 30/12/99. Condolences to the families involved.

The information I have is N90AG.

Commiserations to all involved.

Very sad news indeed.

Anyone know whether commercial or private, operator etc?

Ownership details are vague!

Another dark day...

Witness states "One of it's wings clipped the runway on takeoff"

Could this suggest loss of horizontal control at rotation ?

Very safe planes these, but have been known to suffer uncommanded roll on a couple of occasions.

We shall see in time.

[ 04 January 2002: Message edited by: markbingo ]</p>

Terrible news.

For those interested, this is the aircraft at BHX in Jan 2001.

<a href="http://www.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/open.file?id=133421" target="_blank">N90AG</a>

As said earlier, a sad day.

DROGNA, I understand you not wanting to put the details up on here of the aircraft but as CaptX said, it would alleviate any further grief over worries of friends who fly the type. Thankyou Curious Pax.

[ 05 January 2002: Message edited by: Bright-Ling ]</p>

Maybe I should've just kept quiet, my intention was to show that the information was availbale but maybe we should wait for an official statement.

However, I find it a little insensitive to be posting information of that nature less than 20 minutes after the incident occured - long before the next of Kin have been informed and even before anything has been confirmed officially. Call me old fashioned if you will.

DROGNA - no offence meant!

I kinda agree, but I know people who were flying that type today.

Unfortunately, the BBC already have a fairly close up pic of it in pieces as is the want of the press. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

Sky reports the passengers on board the Challenger
were the President and Vice President of the Agco Corporation, Duluth Georgia. Better known by some
as the holding company of Massey Ferguson.

Commiserations of course to all concerned.

There but for the grace of God.....

Why oh why do the media feel such compulsion to display pics of these incidents so quickly. The NOK could barely have been informed (if at all) before the wreckage was displayed for all the world to see. They claim "it is in the public interest". I'm sorry, but if this is the case then the majority of the worlds population are ghouls and morons.

Very sad indeed. I was at BHX today and witnessed the crash after the initial explosive noise. It APPEARED that the airport fire tenders were slow in responding and in fact an Ops Land Rover reached the crash site first and when the airport fire tenders arrived they SEEMED to wait before making an attempt to put out the fire. I suppose the impact would have been fatal (aircraft was claimed to have cartwheeled (local paper) and final resting position of the main fusalage was inverted. Perhaps further speculation would be inappropriate. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

*** A post by Jet set Sparky has put my mind to rest about my tentative observations in respect of the crash crew response for which I thank him *** Also I note that Jet set Sparky recognised the intent and purpose of my use of upper case in the original post which I have not edited***

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: Thirteen-Twelve ]</p>

Big Tudor - My thoughts exactly!

Can we start acting as professional pilots and stop turning this sad event into another chance to stand on our soap-boxes and bash the media? If you've ever looked for an image in the paper, on the web or on the TV following an accident -- even in your position as a justifiably-interested flight crew member -- then you're standing squarely in a glass house and hefting a pretty big stone, IMHO.

...you might have noticed it wasn't the "media" which was gaily giving out the reg. of the jet on this forum before those poor b******s' bodies were even cold.

13-12. Not sure where you were standing mate, but we had just pushed back off stand. I never saw the actual crash as I was doing the after-starts, but saw the aircraft explode. I can assure my fellow aviators that the BHX firecrews were excellent. The first tender was on site within seconds, with the second one there 10 seconds or so later.

I think they did an excellent job and can levvy no criticism at them at all. It is the first a/c accident I have ever seen first hand and it was upsetting for everyone.

My condolences go to the families of all those affected.

Dee Tee,

It was the first crash I had seen and perhaps it seemed like a long time before the fire tenders arrived, rather than actually being a long time, hence my capital letters though one news site reported the response as being a minute. Maybe it was a case of - time standing still and feeling helpless about it. The Ops Landrover was definitely there first though. It was all very sad and upsetting. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

I used to work at BHX for one of the handling agents. The OPS Guys/Gals at BHX are some of the most switched on idividuals i have met and it does not surprise me in the least that they were on the scene first. There is almost always one OP'S landrover patroling the apron & taxiways (or almost always seemed like it!), so it is likely that they were the closest to the event then the fire service!

A sad day. <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

Sad photo taken on Jan02 at BHX available on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Just use N90AG as the search criteria, nothing else.

Another sad day for aviation. My condolences to all.

Another sad day for aviation. My thoughts are with the familes of the passengers and crew.

Regards,
Homer

13-12
The fire engines were on scene and fire out within two mins of call.

Ops Land rover was there first, because he was on "patrol" on the eastern side.

A tragic accident and a very sad day that I will not forget for a long time.

Have to agree with Kalium, for once it would be nice to see a thread where people don't immediately jump on every technical mistake the media makes. They are not aviation experts, they are journalists doing their job. I don't think anyone here would like it if they were experts. They have a job to report the news and they do it, they are laymen reporting to a layman public so don't expect them to get everything right. Furthermore speculation is part of every breaking news item whether lives have been lost or not. The consumer (including all of us) wants 24 hour visual news and that is the service the media provides.

And, I don't see why as some seem to think aviation should be exempted by the media for showing close-up scenes of accident sites. The accident happened and part of the reporting is viewing the scene, I don't think this is ghoulish or moronic. Anyway, if god forbid someone close to me was lost in an air crash I would want to see the scene on the TV as soon as I could.

I am sure those who complained about the close ups do not avert their eyes when other disasters are reported on the TV news, so why should aviation be any different?

Sorry to divert this sad thread off the point but I felt the above points needed to be made.

Condolences to the families.

The BBC have chosen to show pictures from todays tragic events on a special "crash pictures" page on their website.

In my view this is appalling and unacceptable. I have written to complain.

My deapest sympathies go to all those affected by todays events.

What are you people thinking of, promulgating the reg and ownership details before next of kin have been informed. I sympathise if you had a friend who MIGHT have been involved and therefore YOU are obviously worried but think of the poor families of those who ARE involved. I dispair of our profession and society.

Wedge: I'm afraid you are entirely wrong. The job of the media is to profit by pandering to the worst, most prurient instincts of the public. The media has no other agenda. The notion that they inform or educate is misplaced.
The events following September 11th have shown the media up as never before. Every newspaper, every radio station, every TV news broadcast has dished up an endless stream of talking heads, "experts" who have painted frightening pictures of what was about to happen. Not one jot of this Niagara of speculation has come to pass. I do not exclude the BBC from this blanket condemnation - in fact, they have been among the worst offenders.
When news editors hear of a crash at Birmingham, as they did today, their hearts leap with joy at the prospect of a grisly event to brighten up a dull day and shift some papers.

Too many handwringers on the go again. Lets face it, technology allows us to get the information very quickly now, so why not publish when y ou find out. If/when I go out in a pile of aluminium and avgas, I won't mind the BBC or anyone else pushing out pictures. When I got home tonite, wife said 'accident at Birmingham...'. My first action was to dial into PPRUNE for the informed speculation. That's what PPRUNE is for. Anyway, my NOK can't work a computer.... <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

With all due respect to those lost in this accident I have to agree with the t'aint natural.

I have now reached the stage where I do not bother to watch so called 'breaking news' on television because of the endless speculation, misinformation and plain ghoulishnes. CNN is perhaps the worst with multiple pictures, talking heads and scrolling headlines all on one screen but the British channels are quickly emulating. The September 11th tragedy showed television news at its plain worst.

And to Wedge I would say that it is arguable that instant continuous and, by its very nature, generally inaccurate and crass reporting as a story develops is what the public wants. I don't.

Why the headlong rush to know everything instantly? This thread is also a sad example of wanting to be first to publish something, indeed almost anything, before anybody else. It has already contained quite unnecessary and worthless speculation by markbingo.

If it is felt absolutely necessary to gain an accurate report of the immediate events I am sure the better newspapers will have sufficient coverage tomorrow.