British Airways Flight 009

British Airways Flight 9

Illustration of G-BDXH without power, in the ash cloud
Incident
Date	24 June 1982
Summary	Flameout of all engines due to blockage by volcanic ash
Site	Mount Galunggung, West Java, Indonesia
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-236B
Aircraft name	City of Edinburgh
Operator	British Airways
Registration	G-BDXH
Flight origin	London Heathrow Airport, London, England, United Kingdom
1st stopover	Santacruz International Airport, Bombay, India
2nd stopover	Meenambakkam Airport, Madras, India
3rd stopover	Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4th stopover	Perth Airport, Perth, Australia
Last stopover	Melbourne Airport, Melbourne, Australia
Destination	Auckland Airport, Auckland, New Zealand
Passengers	248
Crew	15
Fatalities	0
Injuries	0
Survivors	263 (all)

British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the Speedbird 9 or Jakarta incident, was a scheduled British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne.

On 24 June 1982, the route was flown by the City of Edinburgh, a 747-236B. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung (approximately 180 kilometres (110 mi) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia), resulting in the failure of all four engines. The reason for the failure was not immediately apparent to the crew or ground control. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely.

The crew members of the incident segment had boarded the aircraft in Kuala Lumpur, while many of the passengers had been aboard since the flight began in London.

Incident

Shortly after 13:40 UTC (20:40 Jakarta time) above the Indian Ocean, south of Java, the flight crew (consisting of Senior First Officer Roger Greaves and Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman while Captain Eric Moody was in the lavatory) first noted an effect on the windscreen similar to St. Elmo's fire. The phenomenon persisted after Moody returned from the lavatory. Despite the weather radar showing clear skies, the crew switched on engine anti-ice and the passenger seat belt signs as a precaution.

As the flight progressed, smoke began to gather throughout the passenger cabin of the aircraft and it was at first assumed to be cigarette smoke. However, it soon began to grow thicker and had an ominous odour of sulphur. Passengers who had a view out of the aircraft windows noted that the engines were unusually bright with the light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect.

At approximately 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), engine number four began surging and soon flamed out. The flight crew immediately performed the engine shutdown drill, quickly cutting off fuel supply and arming the fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out. Within seconds, and almost simultaneously, engines one and three flamed out prompting the flight engineer to exclaim, "I don't believe it—all four engines have failed!"

Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide ratio of approximately 15:1, meaning it can glide forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles (169 km) from its flight level of 37,000 feet (11,000 m). At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves declared an emergency to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down. It was only after a nearby Garuda Indonesia flight relayed the message to Air Traffic Control that it was understood. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, the aeroplane could not be located by Air Traffic Control on their radar screens.

Many passengers wrote notes to relatives. One such passenger was Charles Capewell who wrote "Ma. In trouble. Plane going down. Will do best for boys. We love you. Sorry. Pa XXX" scrawled on the cover of his ticket wallet.

Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet (3,500 m) was required to cross the coast safely. The crew decided that if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they reached 12,000 feet (3,700 m) they would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch into the Indian Ocean. The crew began the engine restart drills, despite being well above the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500 m). The attempts failed.

Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement":

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.

As pressure within the cabin fell, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling—an automatic emergency measure to make up for the lack of air. On the flight deck however, Greaves's mask was broken; the delivery tube had detached from the rest of the mask. Moody swiftly decided to descend at 1,800 m per minute to an altitude where there was enough pressure in the outside atmosphere to breathe almost normally.

At 13,500 feet (4,100 m), they were approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. Although there were guidelines for the procedure, no one had ever tried it in a Boeing 747—nor has anyone since. As they performed the engine-restart procedure, engine number four started, and at 13:56 UTC (20:56 Jakarta time), Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted as well. The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude to 11,500 feet (3,500 m) in order to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.

As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the St. Elmo's fire effect on the windscreen returned. Moody throttled back, however engine number two surged again and had to be shut down. The crew immediately descended and held 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

As Flight 9 approached Jakarta, the crew found it difficult to see anything through the windscreen, and had to make the approach almost entirely on instruments, despite reports of good visibility. The crew decided to fly the ILS, Instrument Landing System, however, the glideslope was inoperative, so they flew the localizer as the first officer monitored the airport's DME (Distance Measuring Equipment). He then called out how high they should be at each DME step along the final track to the runway, creating a virtual glide slope for them to follow. It was, in Moody's words, "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse". Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. After landing, the flight crew found it impossible to taxi, due to glare from apron floodlights which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque. Therefore, City of Edinburgh had to wait for an airport tug to tow her in.

Aftermath

Damaged engine parts from BA 9 on display at Auckland Museum

It was found that City of Edinburgh's problems had been caused by flying through a cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung. Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not show up on the weather radar, which is designed to detect the moisture in clouds. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. As the ash entered the engines, it melted in the combustion chambers and adhered to the inside of the power-plant. As the engine cooled from not running and as the aircraft descended out of the ash cloud, the molten ash solidified and enough broke off to allow air to flow smoothly through the engine allowing a successful restart. The engines had enough electrical power to restart because one generator and the onboard batteries were still operative; generator or battery power is required for ignition of the engines.

Engines one, two and three were replaced at Jakarta, as well as the windscreen, and the fuel tanks were cleared of the ash that had entered them through the pressurisation ducts, contaminating the fuel and requiring that it be disposed of. After being ferried back to London, engine number four was replaced and major work was undertaken to return the aircraft to service. G-BDXH also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft, until the record was broken by the Air Transat Flight 236 incident.

Although the airspace around Mount Galunggung was closed temporarily after the incident, it was re-opened days later. It was only after a Singapore Airlines 747 was forced to shut down three of its engines while flying through the same area nineteen days later (13 July), that Indonesian authorities closed the airspace permanently and re-routed airways to avoid the area, and a watch was set up to monitor clouds of ash. This was not, in fact, the first encounter from this eruption; a Garuda DC-9 encountered ash on 5 April 1982.

The crew received various awards, including the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air and medals from the British Air Line Pilots Association. Following the incident, the crew and passengers formed the Galunggung Gliding Club as a means to keep in contact.

One of the passengers, Betty Tootell, wrote a book about the incident, All Four Engines Have Failed. She managed to trace some 200 of the 247 passengers on the flight, and went on to marry a fellow survivor, James Ferguson, who had been seated in the row in front of her. She notes: "The 28th December 2006 marks the start of our 14th year of honeymoon, and on the 24th June 2007 many passengers and crew will no doubt gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mid-air adventure."

Today, British Airways operates Flight 9 from London Heathrow to Bangkok and Sydney. City of Edinburgh, later renamed City of Elgin, continued to fly for British Airways, before being sold to European Aviation Air Charter. The aircraft was taken out of service in February 2004 and the 30-year old aircraft was scrapped in July 2009.

The incident featured in an episode of the Mayday documentary TV series Air Crash Investigation titled "All Engines Failed".

In January 2009, following the ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, Moody described his feelings during and after the event, in a piece for the The Scotsman.

September 2009 saw City Of Edinburgh take on a fresh significance when the environmental campaign group 10:10 bought the fuselage of the plane and had it converted into thousands of 10:10 tags. The tags, made in the shape of the campaign's logo, are worn as necklaces or bracelets and are used to raise funds and awareness of 10:10's work, primarily to persuade individuals, organizations and businesses to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. On 7 April 2010, the process was documented in a news feature shown on BBC Scotland.

Similar incident

A nearly identical incident occurred on 15 December 1989 when KLM Flight 867, a B747-400 from Amsterdam to Anchorage, Alaska, flew into the plume of the erupting Mount Redoubt, causing all four engines to fail due to compressor stall. Once the flight cleared the ash cloud, the crew was able to restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage.

Other gliding airliners

• US Airways Flight 1549 - 15 January 2009, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River after losing power in both engines, caused by multiple bird strike.
• British Airways Flight 38 - 17 January 2008, crash-landed with extremely reduced power after ice crystals in the fuel clogged the fuel-oil heat exchanger (FOHE) of each engine.
• Air Transat Flight 236 - 24 August 2001, made an emergency landing in the Azores without fuel.
• Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378 - 7 July 2000, landed in a powerless glide 500 metres (0.31 mi) short of the runway in Vienna, Austria, with all aboard surviving.
• Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 - 27 December 1991, made an emergency landing after losing power on both engines due to ice ingestion.
• TACA Flight 110 - 24 May 1988, made an emergency landing after losing all power because of water ingestion to the engines.
• The Gimli Glider (Air Canada Flight 143) - 23 July 1983, ran out of fuel between Montreal, Quebec and Edmonton, Alberta, landing in Manitoba.
• Southern Airways Flight 242 - 4 April 1977, made an emergency landing on a highway after losing all power because of water and hail ingestion to the engines.

See also

• Pacific Ring of Fire
• Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption
• Volcanic ash & air safety

Further reading

• Betty Tootell (1985). All Four Engines Have Failed (British edition). Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-97758-9.

External links

• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.