"J.F." wrote in message
. net...
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A British Airways Plc jumbo jet arriving from China
crashed on landing at London's Heathrow airport, injuring 19 people and
forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights.

Flight BA038 from Beijing, a Boeing Co. 777 carrying 152 passengers and
crew, touched down at 12:42 p.m. local time today, airport owner BAA Ltd.
said in a statement. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Television pictures showed the 777 at the edge of the runway apron with
the grass behind it torn up for several hundred yards where the aircraft
had scraped along. Escape chutes were deployed and fire trucks sprayed the
plane with foam. One wing and much of the landing gear appeared damaged.

``It would be inappropriate for me to speculate as to the likely cause of
this incident,'' British Airways Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh said
in a statement. ``We are very proud of the way our crew safely evacuated
all 136 passengers on board with only minor injuries.''

The Associated Press said hospitals reported receiving 19 people with
crash injuries.

Heathrow's southern runway was closed for almost two hours after the
accident, BAA said. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plane was among
departures that were delayed, with the pilot informing those aboard that a
``significant incident'' had occurred at the airport, Europe's busiest.

`Out of Our Window'

``We saw it out of our window,'' said Peter Morris, chief economist at
Ascend Worldwide, an aviation data provider and consulting company with
offices just outside the Heathrow airfield. ``There's no official report
but it appears that the aircraft undershot the runway -- it landed too
soon.''

The plane suddenly lost power as it approached the runway, CNN quoted the
pilot as saying.

Today's event appears to be the first major incident involving a Boeing
777, Morris said. Like most planes landing at Heathrow, it approached the
airport over the heavily populated suburbs of west London, western
Europe's biggest city.

The 777-200ER, registration G-YMMM, was built in 2001 and is one of 43 in
the British Airways fleet. It's powered by two Rolls-Royce Group Plc Trent
895 engines and had accumulated 23,476 flying hours as of Dec. 31, 2006,
according to data on the Web site of the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority.

Maintenance Check

The plane's last maintenance check was in December and it was piloted by
an experienced captain who has been with British Airways for almost 20
years, said the company, whose shares closed up 1.4 percent today at 293.5
pence.

The incident will be investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation
Branch of the U.K. Department for Transport.

``All we can say at this point is, we look forward to helping with the
investigation as we are invited to participate,'' said Jim Proulx, a
Boeing spokesman in Seattle.

Heathrow is operating at 99 percent of its government- permitted flight
capacity. The tightly packed take-off and landing schedule means even
minor glitches at the airport can have a domino effect on its operations.

BAA, owned by Spanish builder Grupo Ferrovial SA, has been criticized by
politicians, airlines and business leaders for the standards of services
and facilities at Heathrow, which handles 67 million passengers a year in
buildings meant for 45 million.

The airport's southern runway was later reopened for take- offs only, with
the northern runway operating for arriving aircraft. As of 5:30 p.m., 222
out of 1,300 flights had been canceled, with 24 switched to other
airports.

Poor weather may have been a factor in the incident, which didn't appear
to be a premeditated emergency landing, said Robert Cullemore, a
consultant with Aviation Economics in London.

Bird Strike

Other aviation experts said the plane's engines may have sucked in a flock
of Canada geese, causing power to fail. The geese are known to frequent
the many reservoirs around Heathrow. The British Broadcasting Corp. cited
an airport worker it didn't identify as saying the plane had lost power on
its approach.

``From all sources, it would seem that something must have happened in the
minutes or seconds prior to touching down,'' Cullemore said. ``Windshear,
a sudden burst of wind, is one possible culprit, as is the possibility
that the aircraft lost power to its crucial functions.''

BMI, the second-biggest operator at Heathrow, is flying ``as near-a-normal
schedule as possible'' following the incident, it said in a statement
today. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. said all of its services were
proceeding as planned.

`Good Spirits'

Passengers from the British Airways flight were taken to an employee
lounge to be cared for and were ``generally in good spirits'' CEO Walsh
said. The carrier will most likely have to write off the damaged aircraft
and may consequently face operational difficulties, Cullemore of Aviation
Economics said.

``BA's safety record is exemplary and the rapid evacuation of the
passengers without loss of life is a tribute to their safety commitment,''
he said.

Prime Minister Brown, leading a U.K. trade delegation of 30 executives to
China and India, took off almost an hour late on a British Airways Boeing
747. Also on the aircraft was billionaire Richard Branson, who controls
Virgin Atlantic.




Wonder if the pilot left China with enough fuel?