British Airtours - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

On 27 May 1985, a Lockheed TriStar (registration: G-BBAI) overran the runway at Leeds/Bradford Airport on landing from Palma after a rain shower. The aircraft was evacuated, with only minor injuries sustained by the 14 crew and 398 passengers. The nose landing gear strut folded backwards during the overrun, leading to severe damage to the underside of the forward fuselage. The undersides of both wing-mounted engines were flattened and both engines suffered ingestion damage. The main wheels of the aircraft also dug deep troughs in the area beyond the end of the runway, damaging the buried airfield lighting cables. The accident report concluded that the overrun was caused by the inability of the aircraft to achieve the appropriate level of braking effectiveness, and recommended that both the scheduled wet runway performance of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and the condition of the surface of runway 14 at Leeds/Bradford Airport should be re-examined.

On 22 August 1985, the fuselage of a Boeing 737-236 Advanced (registration: G-BGJL), operating British Airtours flight 28M, caught fire after an aborted take off at Manchester Airport while on a charter flight to the Greek island of Corfu. The fuel access panel on the aircraft's fuselage was pierced by a part of the compressor that had been ejected from the port engine as a result of a malfunction. The fire quickly engulfed the area around the front passenger door filling the cabin with lethal, toxic fumes. Fifty-three passengers and two crew members died as a result, with most of them dying of asphyxiation after inhaling the toxic fumes.