Kegworth air disaster
The scene of the disaster, with the runway that G-OBME failed to reach at the top of the picture | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8 January 1989 |
| Summary | Engine failure followed by erroneous shut-down of operating engine, stalled and crashed during emergency landing |
| Site | East Midlands Airport, Kegworth, Leicestershire, England 52°49′55″N 1°17′57.5″W / 52.83194°N 1.299306°W |
| Aircraft | |
| G-OBME, the aircraft involved in the accident, in November 1988 | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-4Y0 |
| Operator | British Midland Airways |
| IATA flight No. | BD092 |
| ICAO flight No. | BMA092 |
| Call sign | MIDLAND 092 |
| Registration | G-OBME |
| Flight origin | London Heathrow Airport, London, England |
| Destination | Belfast International Airport, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Occupants | 126 |
| Passengers | 118 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 47 |
| Injuries | 74 |
| Survivors | 79 |
The Kegworth air disaster occurred when British Midland Airways Flight 092, a Boeing 737-400, crashed onto the motorway embankment between the M1 motorway and A453 road near Kegworth, Leicestershire, England, while attempting to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport on 8 January 1989.
The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow Airport to Belfast International Airport. When a fan blade broke in the left engine, smoke was drawn into the cabin through the air conditioning system. The pilots believed this indicated a fault in the right engine, since earlier models of the 737 ventilated the cabin from the right, and they were unaware that the 737-400 used a different system. The pilots retarded the right thrust lever and the symptoms of smoke and vibration cleared, leading them to believe the problem had been identified, and then the right engine was shut down.
On the final stage of the approach, thrust was increased on the left engine. The tip of the fan blade that had lodged in the cowling from the earlier event became dislodged and was drawn into the core of the engine, damaging it and causing a fire.
The fan blade had initially suffered a fracture caused by aerodynamic flutter. Those responsible for the pre-certification test programme and the issue of a Certificate of Airworthiness 'acted contrary' to the wealth of literature that was available on this subject. This knowledge made clear that static ground testing to discover the presence of flutter was unreliable and the fan blade had to be subjected to the full flight envelope to be certain of the test results.
The accident was the first hull loss of a Boeing 737 Classic aircraft, and the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 737 Classic aircraft. Of the 126 people aboard, 47 died and 74 sustained serious injuries.