Hero pilot says God helped during crash
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Hero pilot says God helped during crash*
From correspondents in London
January 20, 2008 04:06pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
THE co-pilot who averted disaster by safely landing his stricken plane
at London Heathrow Airport says he feared a "major catastrophe".
John Coward, who was at the controls on Friday when the engines on his
Boeing 777 failed over west London, has been hailed as a hero for his
coolness under pressure.
He narrowly got the British Airways plane over rooftops and the Heathrow
perimeter fence before crash-landing on the grass, so that all 136
passengers and 16 crew escaped with their lives.
But he does not consider himself a hero and said the outcome was an act
of God.
"Normally in emergency situations, your training takes over," the
41-year-old told the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
"But training doesn't help much when your engines have just died and you
are still short of the runway.
"I tried to keep the aircraft straight and when we went down I remember
thinking, 'This is going to be a major catastrophe'.
"All the crew did their job absolutely brilliantly, but I think some
thanks has to go to the man upstairs for giving us that little lift at
the end.
"We are intensively drilled in how to re-fire the engines. But in this
case there was no time - just a matter of seconds.
"I just focused on holding it up in the air as long as possible, then
keeping it straight. When we landed there were several thuds. I expected
there to be a major catastrophe but there wasn't.
"I can't even remember how I got off the plane, but there was a fair
degree of panic. Then I sat in a room with lots of people rushing around me.
"I was staring into space thinking about what I could do, as the
adrenaline was still pumping hard."
He said he now felt "happy but utterly exhausted".
"I had barely got through the door when our nine-year-old daughter
Coralie threw her arms around me and said, 'My daddy the hero'. But I
don't consider myself a hero at all."
Flights at Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, returned
to normal yesterday as investigators probed why the plane lost power.
In an initial report on the incident, the Air Accidents Investigation
Branch said that the twin engines had failed to respond to the throttles
at a height of about 180m and 3km from touchdown.