East Midlands Airport - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• On 20 February 1969, Vickers Viscount G-AODG of British Midland Airways was damaged beyond economic repair when it landed short of the runway. There were no casualties.
• On 31 January 1986, Aer Lingus Flight 328, a Short 360, enroute from Dublin, struck power lines and crashed short of the runway. None of the 36 passengers and crew died but two passengers were injured in the accident.
• On 18 January 1987, Fokker F-27 G-BMAU of British Midland Airways crashed on approach to the airport on a training flight with three crew. None was killed or injured.
• On 8 January 1989, British Midland Flight BD092 crashed on approach to East Midlands Airport, killing 47 people. The Boeing 737 aircraft had developed a fan blade failure in one of the two engines while en route from London Heathrow to Belfast and a decision was made to divert to East Midlands. The crew mistakenly shut down the functioning engine, causing the aircraft to lose power and crash on the embankment of the M1 Motorway just short of the runway. No one on the ground was injured despite the aircraft crashing on the embankment of one of the busiest sections of motorway in the UK. The investigation into the Kegworth air disaster, as the incident became known, led to considerable improvements in aircraft safety and emergency instructions for passengers. The official report into the disaster made 31 safety recommendations.
• On 29 October 2010, in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot, after being alerted to the existence of a bomb, an initial search by British police of a UPS plane in the UPS parcels distribution depot at East Midlands Airport came up empty. But after consulting with officials in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, where another package in the plot was discovered, British police discovered the bomb in a second search. The packages, found in the UK and Dubai on two planes from Yemen, contained the powerful high explosive PETN; the devices had more explosive power than the explosives carried by the would-be Christmas Day Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The U.K. and the U.S. determined that the plan was to detonate them while in flight. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took responsibility.