June 24, 1982. British Airways Flight 009 is flying through the night sky above the Indian
Ocean. Suddenly thick sulfurous smoke starts to fill the cabin. Soon the passengers hear:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small
problem. All four engines have stopped.” At 37,000 feet, you really don’t want to
lose all your engines, and certainly not when 263 lives are at stake. The
chances of crashing are ridiculously high. The Captain, 41-year-old Eric Henry Moody,
looked at the other flight crew with a look of grave concern on his face.
32-year-old Senior First Officer Roger Greaves and 40-year-old Senior Engineer Officer Barry
Townley-Freeman were as shocked as Moody. Nothing like this had ever happened to them
before. Moody remembered all those hours on the flight simulator when he was in training. How his
hands would get clammy, but how in the back of his mind, he knew it was fun more than anything else.
But now, he was considering the grim possibility of family, relatives,
and friends turning up at the airport in tears and asking why their loved ones had died.
The Boeing 747-200 plane was flying the long journey from London, England, to Auckland,
New Zealand, with stops at Bombay, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and then Melbourne. Moody’s
crew and passengers had boarded at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Kuala Lumpur,
flying to Malaysia and then to Australia. The plane was over the Indian Ocean, close to Java,
Indonesia, when the first problem was noted. At the time, Moody was on his way to the
bathroom. He was in a good mood. He believed it was going to be a smooth flight. The weather was
supposed to hold up that day, and there were no technical issues. But then, at about 8.40 pm,
local time, as Moody was trying to relieve himself, Greaves and Townley-Freeman noticed
St. Elmo’s Fire through the cockpit window. Such a sight is never not eye-catching, but every
pilot knows it’s a phenomenon that can happen when an aircraft moves through areas where there are
thunderstorms or where thunderstorms are on their way. The really strange thing on this particular
day was that the crew hadn’t received any reports about thunderstorms. Still, they turned on the
fasten your seatbelt sign for safety reasons. One of the passengers, Darlene, was still on her
first drink. She had quite overwhelming flying anxiety, so her journeys on planes usually
consisted of a few glasses of hard liquor. She hoped she’d fall into a deep sleep, so if there
was turbulence, she might doze through it. This day was going to become her worst nightmare.
The crew bathroom was full, so Moody walked down the stairs to the First Class compartment.
On the way, he had a chat with a flight attendant, Sarah Delane-Lea, and as he was
doing that, he got a call from another flight attendant, Fiona Wright. Something was wrong.
He should go back to the flight deck right now. But as he got onto the stairs, he was hit by smoke
that seemed to be bellowing from the vents in the cabin. It almost made him cough. It had an acrid
taste to it, as if there was an electrical fire somewhere. Smoke on a plane, not cigarette smoke,
at least, is always very worrying. Moody charged back to the flight cabin,
making sure not to look panicked and upset any passengers. At that point, Darlene,
like all anxious people, employed her sixth sense - noticing all the
nuances of fear written on Moody’s face. When Moody returned to the flight deck,
he first noticed one of the most stunning instances of St. Elmo’s Fire he’d ever seen
in all his career as a pilot. But the weather was calm. It made no sense at all. He was at
least glad his crew had put the seat belt sign on, but now he was concerned about that smoke.
Just as he was telling the crew about it, the windscreen looked as though it was being hit with
tracer bullets. There were plumes of electrical fire around him, and now it seemed the plane
was being bombarded by something Moody couldn’t quite explain. Just as he was racking his brain to
figure out what was going on, Townley-Freeman announced, “Engine failure number 4!”
This was very serious, but all of them remained composed. They could get through this, whatever it
was. Townley-Freeman then said, “Engine failure number two…three’s gone…. they’ve all gone!”
Moody, now stunned, utterly gob-smacked, was, for one of the first times in his life,
speechless. He then managed to utter under his breath, “Four engines do not fail….”
He thought about a few months earlier when he’d practiced a four-engine failure on the
simulator. He understood that if that happened, the generators would fail. If that were the case,
the batteries would kick in, but the cockpit lighting and some of
the instrumentation would fail to work. But that hadn’t happened yet. Moody was confused.
That’s when he noticed that their speed was decreasing. He put the plane into autopilot
and turned to Greaves, telling him to make a mayday call. Greaves then picked up the radio
and said, “Jakarta, Jakarta, Mayday, mayday. Speedbird 9. We’ve lost all four engines.”
Ground control misunderstood and thought he’d said they’d only lost engine four. After all,
planes don't lose all four engines at once for no good reason. It’s unheard of.
With the autopilot now on, Moody had time to check for what was going wrong. The other two
pilots went through the emergency drill routine. Moody checked the fuel. He checked the circuit
breakers. He went through every check he could and still didn’t know what was happening. The
thought pulsing through his mind was, what the hell have I done wrong here? As the plane lost
more elevation, the indelible sound of the pressure warning horn sounded. BEEP, BEEP,
BEEP, BEEP, as the plane rapidly descended. This really was the stuff of nightmares.
Soon the passengers in all compartments were clinging onto each other, crying,
screaming, some of them seemingly losing it and trying to get out of their seats as the
cabin staff pushed them back down. Others had already started to write letters, hoping their
loved ones would find them in the wreckage. One woman wrote to her husband and children,
saying, “I love you guys. These are my last thoughts. You are my final thoughts. I loved
you more than anything in the world.” Darlene did nothing. She froze like a
statue. Her whiskey glass fell to the side, and she didn’t even notice it. She did not
attempt to get to her anxiety pills. She was petrified to the point of going into shock.
Moody had to think about what to do. He knew that if the plane lost more altitude, there was every
chance they’d hit mountains on the south coast of the island of Java. He could try to maintain the
descent and hope for the one-in-a-million chance that they could ditch safely in the Indian Ocean.
He spoke to the passengers and said what has been called the understatement of the century:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small
problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going
again. I trust you are not in too much distress.” Distress! They were pulling their hair out. Biting
their knuckles. Even those who didn’t believe in God started praying. As the cabin pressure
dropped, oxygen masks fell from above their heads. Moody grabbed his mask, but as he did so,
he saw that Greaves was in trouble. His mask had fallen apart no sooner
than he’d grabbed it. With no operational mask and the plane descending so quickly,
Greaves would likely pass out due to the lack of oxygen to his brain, a condition known as anoxia.
Moody decided the best plan was to keep descending, hoping to get to an altitude
where Greaves could safely breathe. Moody also thought about extending the landing gear. That’s
what the manual said was the right thing to do, but he decided against it. Why? Because what if
he couldn’t get it back up again? There might only be one chance to put it down,
so he decided not to risk it just yet. The problem was the navigation systems
were now not working, so they had no idea what was going on regarding their position.
If there was any good news, it was that Greaves had somehow managed to put his oxygen mask back
together. God knows how he did it. Moody didn’t ask. After all, he believed there was a good
possibility that everyone on the plane would soon be torn to pieces and lost in the ocean.
Thoughts flashed through his mind at the speed of light. He remembered when he was a kid,
his father had taken him to the pier, where they watched flying boats land in the sea.
His dad told him that they couldn’t do that at night as they wouldn’t be able to judge their
position over the water. To land, they had to get it just right. Otherwise, they’d crash.
He was then shaken out of his trance by screams of delight. His co-pilots were pumping their fists.
Engine four had started! Then no sooner than that happened, the other engines started. It
was a miracle! Nothing else could explain it. Greaves's voice ringing with elation told
ground control, “Speedbird 9. We’re back in business. All four running. 12,000 feet.”
They climbed to 15,000 feet and above, but as the plane ascended more, yet again,
they saw St. Elmo’s Fire through the window. What the hell was going on here!? They decided
to descend again since something was definitely affecting the plane the higher they were. As they
steadied the plane at around 15,000 feet, they received clearance to land at Jakarta,
but the landing wouldn’t be easy without glide path information. The instruments were
still acting up. At least it was a clear night. The passengers gripped their seats on the descent.
Darlene was still in a trance, not moving at all. Moody knew that landing this plane without working
instruments in the dark was near-on impossible, at least without some kind of accident. All three
pilots gave each other a look that said, “This is the most important thing you will do in your
entire life. There are hundreds of people back there, all with families. DO NOT mess this up.”
They descended more but could hardly see the lights when they approached the runway. It was
as if something was blinding them, shielding their view of the outside, but they had no choice but to
try and land. The engines’ thrust filled their ears as they focused on what they thought was in
front of them. This was the point of no return. Those seconds before the wheels hit the ground
seemed like hours. Screams of joy filled the cabin when the plane slowed on the
runway. Moody’s hands were shaking. For the first time, he realized how much tension had
been thundering through his bones. It was a smooth landing, considering
the conditions. Moody heard clapping coming from the cabin. He didn’t know whether to
laugh or cry. Darlene suddenly flexed her head, like a mythological creature coming
back to life after being turned to stone by the gorgon Medusa. What had just happened?
As the plane taxied, the pilots still couldn’t see much. Greaves told ground control,
“Speedbird 9. I can’t see with the light in my eyes. I’ll hold it.”
As they sat there, the passengers were still cheering in the cabin. Some of them were
now hugging total strangers, their letters of sorrow folded neatly in their pockets. What had
caused this to happen? How does a plane go from total engine failure to suddenly right as rain?
They had a clue when they were standing at the door waiting for the steps to be brought
to them. Right then, Moody said to Greaves, “Have you seen this?” He pointed to his hands,
which were covered in fine dust. “This stuff is everywhere,” he said. It was volcanic ash from
Mount Galunggung, which had erupted just before their plane flew right through it.
The hot ash had sandblasted the plane, clogged the engines, and ground down the turbines, but Moody
and crew had navigated around it just perfect. No plane in history had ever traveled that far
without any of its engines. It even got them into the Guinness Book of Records. They had
done almost everything right, which is why their actions became a class in crisis management.
Later, a tabloid journalist asked Moody, “What was it like to land
on a dark night with no forward vision?” Moody replied, “It was a bit like negotiating
one’s way up a badger’s arse?” Here at the Infographics Show,
we like a happy ending. A man and a woman who’d consoled each other at a point they both thought
they were going to die ended up dating. They married in 1993 and lived happily ever after.
Now you need to watch “Did Pan Am Flight 914 Really Land 37 Years Later.” Or,
have a look at “Malaysian Air Mystery, What We Now Know About Missing Flight MH370.”