How tragedy at Manchester airport saved passengers in Tokyo plane fire

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“As the aircraft stopped, the aft cabin was suddenly filled with thick black smoke which induced panic amongst passengers in that area, with a consequent rapid forward movement down the aisle.

“Many passengers stumbled and collapsed in the aisle, forcing others to go over the seat-backs towards the centre cabin area, which was clear up until the time the right overwing exit was opened.

“A passenger from the front row of seats looked back as he waited to exit the aircraft, and was aware of a mass of people tangled together and struggling in the centre section, apparently incapable of moving forward. He stated ‘people were howling and screaming’.”

That horrifying account of unfolding tragedy is taken from the official report into the final deadly accident involving British Airways.

On 22 August 1985, a Boeing 737 belonging to BA’s constitution subsidiary, British Airtours, accelerated alongside the runway at Manchester airport, vacation spot Corfu. An engine failure began a fire. The pilots aborted the take-off, stopped the plane and ordered an emergency evacuation.

In the following chaos, solely 83 of the passengers and crew made it out alive. One preliminary survivor died six days later, taking the loss of life toll to 55 – most of them killed by a mixture of toxic gases.

“Many survivors from the front six rows of seats described a roll of thick black smoke clinging to the ceiling and moving rapidly forwards along the cabin,” the accident report continues.

“On reaching the forward bulkheads it curled down, began moving aft, lowering and filling the cabin. Some of these passengers became engulfed in the smoke despite their close proximity to the forward exits.

“All described a single breath as burning and painful, immediately causing choking. Some used clothing or hands over their mouths in an attempt to filter the smoke; others attempted to hold their breath. They experienced drowsiness and disorientation, and were forced to feel their way along the seat rows towards the exits, whilst being jostled and pushed.”

Almost 40 years later, on 2 January 2024, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 was cleared to land on runway 34R at Tokyo’s primary airport, Haneda. A small Dash-8 propeller plane belonging to the Japanese coastguard had been instructed to carry in need of the runway however – we now know from the discharge of air-traffic management messages – strayed onto it.

“It seems to be that the guy in the Dash-8 lined up without permission,” says Rowland Burley – a former Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 pilot who has flown into Haneda many instances.

“I understand he’d been taxiing for an hour already, so he was probably impatient to be off – very ‘go minded’. It’s just weird that he didn’t look up and see this large A350 coming in and about to land on top of him.

“It’s just so sad that at night the A350 pilots didn’t actually see this guy in front of them.

“I can understand that because there’s lots of lights around, it’s very bright, you’ve got the city quite close and Yokohama [a large port] and stuff, so there would be a lot of confusion with other lights around.”

The Japan Airlines A350 struck the Dash-8, and each plane caught fire. The captain of the coastguard plane escaped, however his 5 colleagues perished.

The passenger jet continued for 1km alongside the runway, in flames. On board: 367 passengers, together with eight infants below two, and 12 crew. The public deal with system failed, that means cabin crew needed to shout and use megaphones to order the evacuation. Only three of the eight emergency slides might be used due to the fire engulfing a lot of the plane.

The circumstances thus far bear a powerful resemblance to the British Airtours tragedy at Manchester, however with almost 3 times as many individuals at danger.

Yet all 379 individuals escaped from the plane. In phrases of bodily harm, there nothing worse than bruises; the emotional toll of being concerned in a near-death expertise can solely be imagined.

The Manchester catastrophe helped save their lives. Airlines are ferociously aggressive – besides in an important facet of all, security. The aviation trade is predicated on open, collaborative investigation. The crucial is to not apportion blame, however to guard future passengers by studying from tragedy.

The lack of 55 souls in chaotic circumstances in Manchester modified a lot. Floor lighting to information passengers to an exit is obligatory. At these exits, minimal house and handholds are stipulated for cabin crew to allow them to assist passenger escape.

At Manchester, the cabin crew – together with two younger stewardesses who perished whereas striving to avoid wasting lives – carried out their duties in exemplary style. But that they had been dealt a lethal hand: on a blazing plane, filling with deadly fumes, passengers grew to become jammed collectively at exits and the crew couldn’t bodily extract individuals in time.

While the Boeing 737 had been licensed for evacuation inside 90 seconds, occasions at Manchester bore no resemblance to the take a look at parameters.

Passengers in the overwing exits didn’t perceive how one can open the emergency hatch, nor what to do with the heavy slab of steel when lastly it was open. Today, everybody having fun with the additional legroom may even get a lecture about how one can deal with the gadget – and requested if they’re ready to help.

The odds of a typical crew member experiencing an emergency evacuation through the course of a profession are extraordinarily low. Chris Hammond labored as a pilot for 43 years, first for BA’s predecessor BOAC and later as a captain for easyJet.

He now speaks for the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa).

“I had probably three or four incidents that could have turned into an evacuation if they’d gone wrong. They didn’t,” Captain Hammond says.

“I’ve never, ever had to push the button to evacuate.

“There is a button, yes – it’s on the overhead console. The evacuation button starts off all kinds of sirens and so forth and indicates to the cabin crew that they can do their drills.

“We would announce of we could from the flight deck, saying: ‘This is the captain. This is an emergency. Evacuate, evacuate.’

“The cabin crew can initiate an evacuation themselves. If they don’t hear from the front end, that could be because the front end are disabled, so it’s within their remit to start one themselves.”

Cabin crew’s focus is on serving to passengers survive survivable accidents.

“The nice person who poured you a drink and joked with you? They just turned into Gunny Hartman from Full Metal Jacket.”

So says a smart outdated plane captain who goes by the deal with of KC-10 Driver (translation: pilot for the army model of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10). He posted a thread on X (previously Twitter) that sums up an emergency evacuation. The cabin crew, he says, are educated to shout at passengers to avoid wasting lives.

“You’ll obey. There is no ‘what if I don’t?’ You’ll move quickly, because they’re using psychological means to get you to move. If you stop at the slide, they’re not going to have a conversation with you. You’re going down the slide and quickly. They’ll evacuate everyone within 90 seconds.

“You may end up injured at the bottom of the slide, but it’s better than burning.”

The 379 passengers and crew didn’t burn, however their £100m plane did. “We love our jets, but they exist to deliver us to a destination,” says KC-10 Driver.

“They’re engineered to sacrifice themselves to protect you if need arises and let you escape quickly.”

The morning after the nightmare touchdown, nearly nothing remained of the sacrificed carcass of the Airbus A350. The fuselage is constituted of carbon-based composite – used for top power, low weight and sturdiness. And, it seems, added security.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says: “Aluminium will melt at 660C in large fires. Typically, for a composite material, the degradation temperature to cause burning is 300-500C, but it will maintain structural integrity during burning.”

Investigators are actually trawling by means of the embers in search of the “black box” – the cockpit voice recorder, which is able to reveal how the pilots responded. Perhaps a 12 months from now, the ultimate report into the accident will inform the complete, chilling story. Safety officers for the world’s airways will learn it carefully.

“The safety and security of our customers and crew will always be our number one priority and we continually review our procedures in line with best practice and events that occur globally in our industry,” says a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson.

“Once the final report is produced by the Japanese Transport Safety Board we will review and if applicable, take onboard any learnings.”

Before then, although, passenger behaviour ought to begin to change, says Chris Hammond of Balpa. He says that pilots will likely be “emphasising that the safety briefing must be watched” – maybe by saying: “These things can happen. If you don’t believe me, remember the Japanese flight.”

The survival of everybody on the passenger jet was not, although, a miracle: it was a testomony to rigorous coaching and a security tradition unmatched in another trade. British Airways has had an excellent security file because the Manchester catastrophe, and its rivals – Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair – have suffered no deadly accidents.

Out of tragedy, security.