Airmanship may sound old school but former British Airways captain Eric Moody argues it is just as important now as it was when he and his crew struggled to restart all 4 engines on his Boeing 747-200 in 1982. It was, says Moody, a classic case of airmanship and cooperation between the flight crew. Its where you come from.. As pressure within the cabin fell, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling an automatic emergency measure to make up for the lack of air. As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the St Elmo's fire effect on the windscreen returned. It was the first officer, co-pilot, it was - and the flight engineer. Within a year the rest of his hair had done the same. It was only after a nearby Garuda Indonesia flight relayed the message to Air Traffic Control that it was correctly understood. Sign up for notifications from Insider! As they performed the engine restart procedure, engine number four finally started, and at 13:56 UTC (20:56 Jakarta time), Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. "[10], British Airways continued to operate the Flight 9 route from London Heathrow to Sydney; in March 2012 the route was curtailed to Bangkok. But he took voluntary redundancy in August 2009 and criticised BA over its handling of the incident, claiming he had been "hung out to dry". "We were heading straight for the buildings around Hatton Cross Tube station," Burkill recalled. I trust you are not in too much distress.". NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Jan 31 Saints and Broncos are finalizing compensation in return for Super Bowl-winning HC Sean Payton, sources tell ESPN. Broncos fans: 0:11 1.6M views Oxygen bags are deployed. WebIm Captain Eric Moody, a native of coastal Georgia and a full time resident of Jekyll Island for over 25 years with 16 of those years has been spent as a fishing guide. Moody throttled back; however, engine number two surged again and was shut down. In some cases the white hairs are unaffected by the condition. During the struggle, the plane was forced into a roll just before impact with the water, causing the craft to break into three pieces. Can hair really turn white overnight? Part of the floor at the rear gave way, severing a control cable and disabling an engine. Aviation safety advances helped stave off BA plane fire disaster, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. From November, 1981, to September, 1986, he coordinated all the FBIs Labor Racketeering investigations. We have a small problem. WebIm Captain Eric Moody, a native of coastal Georgia and a full time resident of Jekyll Island for over 25 years with 16 of those years has been spent as a fishing guide. Moody decides on an emergency descent rather than lose a valuable crew member but Greaves manages to fix the mask and the crew reduces the descent rate as it passes through 20,000 feet. SIMON: They are several hundred people that I bet feel they owe their lives to you and your crew. British Airways Flight 9from Heathrow to Auckland was passing over Jakarta when it ran into volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four of the 747's engines. Ash had clogged the engines, which only restarted when enough of the molten ash solidified and broke off. It's a major hassle when your prosthetic arm has just fallen off. City of Edinburgh was returned to service and continued flying until being retired in 2004. Eric Moody THE HAMPSHIRE pilot of the infamous 1982 British Airways Flight 9 incident today said he believed the Malaysian Airlines MH370 was brought down deliberately. Captain Eric Moody gave an interview to the July 2010 edition of Flaps Podcast, where he recounted his experience. It is thought to be caused by an auto-immune response, where the bodys defence system turns on itself. Hair gets its colour from two types of melanin pigment eumelanin which dictates how dark the hair is, and pheomelanin which determines how red or yellow it is. MOODY: I mean you're the first person at the scene of an accident and you're the first person to get the blame for an accident. This is your captain speaking. Gliding as low as 12,000 feet, they turned back towards Indonesia. Moody's announcement was actually more than that. Reflecting on the chilling events of that flight 28 years later, Capt Moody, who lives in Camberley in Surrey, shows the sort of understatement characteristic of those in his profession. The findings were eventually incorporated into a report on the dangers of volcanic ash to aircraft. In 1988, a 737, flown by Aloha Airlines with 90 people on board was en route to Honolulu, cruising at an altitude of 24,000 feet, when a small section of the roof ruptured. Sorry. When the French queen, Marie Antoinette was led to the guillotine at the age of 37, her hair is said to have turned white the night before in anticipation of her execution. They calculated the giant Boeing could glide for less than 25 minutes from 37,000 feet and there was a problem with high mountains between the aircraft and Jakarta. The problem had not been spotted earlier because of an electronic fault on the aircrafts instrument panel, and the plane lost all power. The captain considered getting the co-pilot to take control but concluded that, given the time available and the challenging conditions, his best course of action was to move his right hand from the power levers on to the yoke to regain control. The plane was a write-off - the nose gear collapsed, the right main gear separated from the aircraft, penetrating a fuel tank, and the left main gear was pushed up through the wing - but just one passenger had suffered a serious injury by the time it came to a halt beside the threshold markings at the start of the runway. She was imprisoned for a year, so perhaps she was denied hair dye in captivity and by the time she appeared in public again at her execution with her hair cut short her grey roots had grown out. Born in Savannah, Ga and growing up in Hinesville, I was always close We have a small problem. "Not a day goes by without it crossing my mind," he told the BBC last year. Within seconds, and almost simultaneously, engines one and three flamed out, prompting the flight engineer to exclaim, "I don't believe itall four engines have failed!"[3]. Many passengers, fearing for their lives, wrote notes to relatives. The plane returned to Detroit, and - despite being forced to land dangerously fast - McCormick touched down safely. The unusual display and, it would turn out, the engine failures, were due to volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt Galunggung, south-east of Jakarta. The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles (169km) from its flight level of 37,000 feet (11,000m). The pilot had attempted a water landing while trying to fight off the hijackers. After leaving the ground, however, a turbine disc failure set the right engine alight and caused panic on board. Moody and his crew began trying to restart the engines, even though the number 4 engine was technically not allowed. https://www.seafarerinnandsuites.com/. The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well above the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500m). But it developed into something more than we'd ever seen before.". Henkey is the latest man and all these heroes are men, owing to an industry where women are still an extreme minority to join the ranks of airplane pilots who demonstrated quick thinking in the face of destruction. Im married to the lovely Claire Moody who is the General Manger of the Seafarer Inn and Suites on Jekyll. Moody says a strong grounding in airmanship skills he and the crew had gained over the years through experience and by watching others helped them survive the ordeal. WebPresident, Moodys Analytics: Michael West: President, Moodys Investors Service: John J. Goggins: Executive Vice President & General Counsel: Senior Vice Presidents; Maral Kazanjian: Chief People Officer: Scott Kenney: Risk Management & Chief Audit Executive: David Platt: Chief Strategy Officer Caroline Sullivan But, not surprisingly, many people on the plane thought they were about to die. His head and torso were outdoors at 17,300 feet and being battered by 300mph winds while his legs remained inside, with flight attendants gripping him tightly. Passengers who had a view out the aircraft windows noted that the engines were unusually bright, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect. But the flight engineer summed it up at the time when he said: That was like thinking through treacle.. In his calmest pilots voice Moody made an announcement: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, This is your captain speaking. So Fred developed this but he couldn't find anybody to put it into production. Dec 2021 - Present1 year 2 months. We have a small problem. After its closing I did what most young people do at a tourist destination and started waiting tables and bartending. City of Edinburgh, later renamed City of Elgin, continued to fly for British Airways after the incident, before being sold to European Aviation Air Charter. Pa XXX" on the cover of his ticket wallet.[2]. But this doesnt explain other anecdotal tales, for instance in young people who would have so few white hairs that if all their darker hair fell any white hairs remaining would be very sparse. Henkey, who has been a pilot for 42 years, issued a mayday call and brought the plane to a stop. We have a small problem. It worked, but meant the aircraft looked certain to miss the runway. Eventually, the overall effect of a combination of coloured and colourless hair, especially in people with dark hair, is grey. His hair took a year to turn completely white. Landing in gusty conditions is a minor inconvenience for any pilot. The crew members of the incident segment had boarded the aircraft in Kuala Lumpur, while many of the passengers had been aboard since the flight began in London.[2]. Airmanship may sound old school but former British Airways captain Eric Moody argues it is just as important now as it was when he and his crew struggled to restart all 4 engines on his Boeing 747-200 in 1982. We have a small problem. WebMoody was then transferred to FBI Headquarters, OC Section, Criminal Investigative Division. WebCaptain Eric Moody was later praised for a cabin announcement that was described as "a masterpiece of understatement." Its a common tale, even said to have happened to Marie Antoinette. Our first thoughts were it was a bomb.". In 1970, an ALM flight from New York to the island of St Maarten ran out of fuel following three landing attempts in adverse weather, and was ultimately forced to land in the Caribbean Sea. I think airmanship is at the bottom of it all. Dubbed the hero of the Hudson after bringing 155 passengers to safety in the powerless aircraft on 15 January 2009, Sullenberger became a national hero in the US. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The City of Edinburgh had been cruising at 37,000 feet over the ocean on a June night w A fascinating picture of airmanship and teamwork. The same thing is said to have happened to several historical figures, but in a far shorter time frame. This is your captain speaking. Dec 2021 - Present1 year 2 months. Post-flight investigation revealed that City of Edinburgh's problems had been caused by flying through a cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung. But that was the least of my worries, I have to say. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. The crew immediately descended and held 12,000 feet (3,700m). "; The passenger jet effectively turned into a glider, Capt Moody accepting an award after his safe handling of the crisis, Clare Wickett, a flight attendant on BA 009, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites, How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire, Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit, How Captain Eric Moodys brush with volcanic ash became aircraft lore-2 hrs ago, Why is volcanic ash a threat? And then 30 seconds later the other two started up. Copyright 2010 NPR. [6] The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude in order to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.[7]. This episode was repeated a number of times when the Eyjafjallajkull volcano caused a large-scale shutdown of European airspace. Although the airspace around Mount Galunggung was closed temporarily after the incident, it was reopened days later. Once he got landing permission from an airport in Southampton, Atchison guided the plane down, navigating as debris flew around the cockpit and Lancaster remained on the windshield, still held by the flight attendant. Born in Savannah, Ga and growing up in Hinesville, I was always close In 1982, a British Airways 747 flew into a cloud of volcanic ash near Indonesia. We finish on a slightly comical note. There had been no hint of trouble when flight BA 009 took off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on the evening of 24 June, 1982. But as Claudia Hammond finds out, it is difficult to get to the root of the problem. Effective date of retirement is no later than August 1, 2022. But 10 years ago it had a very close call. When he opened the door to the cockpit he saw the windscreen ablaze with a St Elmo's fire - a discharge of static electricity. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. "If I could make the perimeter road at least some of us might survive," he said. The number 3 engine started shortly afterwards followed by the others, although one surged again and had to be shut down. Hamble was strong on airmanship and those early lessons stuck with Moody throughout his career. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. All four engines have stopped. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta. In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed into the ocean near the Comoros Islands after running out of fuel. Eventually, the engines came back to life after the molten ash that clogged the engines solidified and broke off. We have a small problem. She notes: "The 28th December 2006 marks the start of our 14th year of honeymoon, and on the 24th June 2007 many passengers and crew will no doubt gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mid-air adventure. The minimum time in grade to be considered eligible for retirement is two years. Captain Bryce McCormick, who initially believed the plane had suffered a mid-air collision, declared an emergency, while flight attendants took oxygen to passengers (masks did not deploy because the plane was below the 14,000ft limit). At 13,500 feet (4,100m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. A feature film starring Tom Hanks followed. You have entered an incorrect email address! Moody hadnt a clue why. Although there were guidelines for the water landing procedure, no one had ever tried it in a Boeing 747, nor has anyone since. 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