On a calm summer night, passengers boarded the plane that would take them from Kuala
Lumpur to Perth. The atmosphere was relaxed; the weather was fine, there were no approaching
thunderstorms, and the plane didn't have any technical issues.
But by the time the plane was in the air south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia, the first officer was
sending out a Mayday distress call. All four of their engines had failed.
It happened on June 24, 1982. British Airways Flight 9, also called Speedbird 9, performed
its scheduled flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with 5 stops on the way: in Bombay,
Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne. That day, the plane that had to fly this route
was a Boeing 747 named the City of Edinburgh. The plane had already made it to Kuala Lumpur
uneventfully. Most passengers were already on board the aircraft since it left London
and, having traveled through several time zones, were exhausted. But the cockpit crew
took control of the plane in Kuala Lumpur, meaning they were alert and full of energy.
The crew consisted of Captain Eric Moody, Senior First Officer Roger Greaves, and Senior
Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman. There were 247 passengers and 100 tons (90
tonnes) of fuel on board the plane. That night, although moonless, was quite clear, and the
flying conditions couldn't be better. All in all, the crew expected an uneventful 5-hour
flight. The plane reached the cruising height of 37,000
ft (11,277 m), and the captain descended the stairs to the first class area to stretch
his legs and use the toilet. But then, almost immediately, he was called back to the flight
deck. While climbing the stairs, he spotted weird puffs of smoke rising up from the vents
at the floor level. And even though at that time passengers were still allowed to smoke
on board, this smoke had a very peculiar acrid smell and looked thicker than usual.
Anyway, when Moody entered the flight deck, he immediately spotted why his co-pilot had
called for him. The windshields were ablaze with the most intense phenomenon of St. Elmo's
fire the captain had ever seen in his life. Usually, St. Elmo's fire is a harmless discharge
of static electricity on a metal surface, and planes, as well as ships, experience it
on a regular basis. But that's where the problem lies. As soon as the captain fastened his
seat belt, he looked at the weather radar - and it wasn't showing any thunder clouds
at all! The weather was as clear as it was when they’d started their journey! When
the crew switched on their landing lights, they also noticed that there was a weird cloud
surrounding the plane. The situation was becoming more and more confusing. Luckily, the First
Officer had already put on the seat belt sign and the engine igniters. It was about 8:40
PM Jakarta time. The flight went on, but the smoke started
to accumulate in the airplane's passenger cabin. And while at first, it resembled cigarette
smoke, with every passing minute, it was getting thicker and acquired the ominous stench of
sulfur. The temperature on board also began to rise. But that wasn't all. Suddenly, the
passengers who could see the engines from their seats noticed that they were bright
blue, and some bizarre light was shining through the fan blades.
By that time, the plane had been flying in a cloud of bright white light, and the temperature
on board kept soaring. The people were covered with sweat; the acrid smoke was getting into
their eyes, noses, and throats. It was 8:42 when Barry Townley-Freeman shouted
that engine number four had flamed out. Without losing time, the crew shut down the engine
by arming the fire extinguishers and cutting off the fuel supply. But just a minute later,
at 8:43, engine number two flamed up as well, followed by engines one and three. The huge
plane turned into a glider in a matter of minutes.
The captain estimated that they could glide 15 miles (24 km) for every mile (1.6 km) they
dropped. It meant that the plane was able to glide for only 23 minutes and cover the
distance of 91 nautical miles (168 km). At 8:44 PM the First Officer informed local air
traffic control about their emergency. However, even though he had said everything correctly,
Jakarta Area Control decided that only engine number four had failed. They probably just
couldn't grasp the horror of the situation. Luckily, another nearby flight helped to clear
up the misunderstanding and convey the urgent message to air control.
The southern coast of Indonesian Java island is covered with high mountains. That's why
the altitude needed to cross the coast safely should be no less than 11,500 ft (3,500 m).
Unfortunately, it was clear that the plane was unable to fly that high, and the flight
crew decided to try to land on the water of the Indian Ocean. An attempt to restart the
engines failed. That's when the captain made his legendary
announcement to the passengers. "Ladies and gentlemen, that's your captain speaking. We
have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing all we can to get them
going again. I trust you are not in too much distress." Given the nightmarish situation,
this announcement was later dubbed as "a masterpiece of understatement."
Unbelievably, the passengers of the flight, as well as the cabin crew, reacted to the
captain's awful announcement in an unusual way. Instead of panicking, screaming, and
creating chaos on board, they turned eerily calm. Those who were sitting in the window
seats could see that the engines were on fire, huge streams of flame trailing behind the
plane. Mothers were hugging their kids, husbands
were squeezing their wives' hands, flight attendants were teaming solo passengers together
so they could support each other in the seemingly last minutes of their lives. Many passengers
were writing their last notes to relatives and loved ones.
By that time, the cabin pressure dropped dramatically, there was a shortage of air, and the passengers
hastily pulled on their oxygen masks. However, not everything went so smoothly on the flight
deck. There, Greaves discovered that the delivery tube was detached from the rest of his mask,
which meant that he couldn't breathe. This made the captain take drastic measures: he
went into a nosedive to reach an altitude where people could breathe normally again.
When the plane descended to 13,500 ft (4,114 m), it was time to make a turn and try to
head toward the ocean. The maneuver was extremely risky since none of the flight crew members
had ever tried a water landing in a Boeing 747. But then a miracle happened. When the
pilots tried to restart the engines again at 8:56 PM, engine number four roared back
to life! With its help, the captain managed to reduce the speed of their descent. Even
better, several minutes later the three other engines started as well!
However, as the plane started to climb toward its target altitude, the crew noticed St.
Elmo's fire on their windshield again. Shortly after, engine number two shut down again.
Scared, the crew immediately descended to 12,000 ft (3,660 m) and headed for the nearest
airport. Little did they know, their problems were far from over.
As the plane was approaching Jakarta, it turned out that the cockpit crew couldn't see anything
through the windshield, even though the visibility outside was perfect. The landing equipment
wasn't working, and the crew had to land the plane manually. They could see the runway
lights through a tiny strip of window, but the aircraft's landing lights didn't work.
Even so, the captain managed to perform a perfectly smooth landing. Safely on the ground,
passengers were applauding the pilots and hugging each other. No casualties, no bad
injuries, happy ending. But why did the 263 people who were on board
the plane that day nearly lose their lives? During the investigation, it turned out that
the near-tragedy happened because the plane flew into a cloud of volcanic ash left after
the eruption of Mount Galuggung in 1982. The ash was dry, which is why no weather radars
could detect it. This ash cloud clogged the engines and sandblasted the windshield. On
top of that, as the ash entered the combustion chambers, it melted and stuck to their insides,
causing the shutdown of the engines. When the plane left the ash cloud, and the engines
cooled down without work, the molten ash became solid, broke off, and was blown free. As a
result, the pilots managed to restart them. The airspace over Mount Galunggung was temporarily
closed after the accident but opened again just a couple of days later. And it wasn't
until 19 days later, when a Singapore Airlines 747 had to shut down three engines in the
same area, that Indonesian authorities permanently closed the airspace and changed the plane
routes to go round that area. Captain Eric Moody was awarded the Queen's
Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, and all the flight crew received medals from
the British Airline Pilot's Association.
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