Kegworth Air Crash
Kegworth, Derbyshire The 8th of January 1989 AD
When British Midland flight 92 from London Heathrow to Belfast suddenly developed engine troubles, it was diverted to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport. The twin-engined Boeing 737-400 should have had relatively little difficulty with the loss of one engine. But tragically the pilot and co-pilot made what was to be a fatal error in mis-identifying the right-side engine as the failing one and switching it off, leaving the left-side engine where a fan-blade had disintegrated as the only power-source remaining to bring the aircraft in. When the error was realised they made frantic efforts to re-start the undamaged unit, but in vain. The left-side engine stopped, leaving gliding the aircraft to safety the only option.
The Boeing narrowly missed the village of Kegworth, thanks to some skilful flying by the pilot; but it fell short of the runway, miraculously bouncing over the M1 before ploughing into the ground and fracturing into three parts. Some 39 passengers died at the crash site; eight more expired later; 79 others on board all suffered injuries, many serious.
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