BA38 FROM THE INSIDE.

The following is a brief feedback from one of my family members who was sitting in First Class on BA38, when the Boeing 777 crashed on landing at London's Heathrow airport after suffering a double engine failure.

I too have experienced a double engine failure but on a far less complicated aircraft, a PA31, but more on that event later.

The following is a link to a video of the ATC transcript, which is very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TJeEl0-1sjM

Very briefly, and from the horse's mouth.........

The flight appeared totally normal, the touchdown seemed a lot firmer than normal. There was no panic even after the aircraft came to a standstill. There was no evacuation initially ordered over the Public Address system. The cabincrew opened the forward doors and deployed the slides. Still no panic, passengers stood up in the First Class compartment and started to retrieve their belongings from the overhead bins before deplaning/evacuating. He stated that prior to leaving the aircraft he never heard anything from the pilots.
It was then that the cabin crew started the evacuation in earnest. He went down the slide and the only BA cabin crew member was just standing at the end of the slide but in tears. He put his arm around her to try and console her. Shortly afterwards the fire service arrived and he was led away, leaving the distressed cabincrew member behind.
It took several hours before he was able to leave the airport as the British Airways groundstaff were unprepared for such a situation.
He subsequently suffered back problems from the vertical component of the impact, bills which BA paid, they also paid for him and three family members to travel club class and pay for the hotels on any British Airways holiday around the world....a nice gesture in my opinion.

I mentioned the above a year later when doing Safety and Emergency Procedures training at British Airways Cranebank training centre. The instructor vehemently stated that the above was totally untrue and that the above never happened. I insisted that this was a true and factual statement and I was again rebuked...............Ostriches?!!!