The nosewheel of a British Airways passenger jet collapsed with a loud bang as it landed on Friday at London City Airport, sending the plane scraping across the tarmac with 71 people aboard, officials and witnesses said. All aboard escaped by emergency slides, but one person was taken to a hospital with a minor injury.
BA Flight 8456 was flying from Amsterdam to London when its front landing gear failed and the front wheel fell off.
“As a precaution the emergency slides were deployed and passengers were evacuated down the slides onto the runway,” the airline said in a statement. “One passenger suffered a minor injury.”
The airline said the Avro 146 RJ100 — made by BAE Systems — was carrying 67 passengers and four crew. London firefighters said the plane crashed onto the runway around 8pm and ambulance officials reported that four people were treated for minor injuries.
“The front wheel collapsed, the cabin filled with smoke and everyone had to vacate from the rear of the plane. People were pretty calm at first but when the plane started to fill up with smoke, people were not moving fast enough and they got pretty fractious,” said Ray Hamblin, one of the passengers. “As I came off the emergency slide I hit my wrist on the runway. I think there are a couple of people with cuts and scrapes.”
Justin Fletcher told the British Broadcasting Corp that “there was obviously quite a loud bang as the plane scratched in. The stewards and stewardesses were quick to evacuate everyone off. There was a few scrapes and cuts due to hitting the asphalt. All in all everyone seems to be doing quite well now.”
A City Airport spokeswoman said the passengers were brought into the airport after the accident for treatment, and were served food and drinks by airport staff.
The airport’s only runway was closed after the incident and 11 flights were diverted to other airports in southeast England.
The government sent three investigators to the scene. The plane remained on the runway on Friday evening, surrounded by fire trucks and maintenance crews. Police officers also arrived to get witness statements from passengers.
London City Airport, in the eastern part of the British capital, is mainly used for domestic and European flights. It handles around 80,000 flights a year, with just over 3 million passengers. The airport is surrounded by water and aviation experts say pilots often experience difficult landings on the runway.
The plane that crashed at City Airport is modeled on the British Aerospace 146 — a medium-sized plane with four engines that was good at landing on poor quality runways. It had been designed for possible use in Africa but was used mainly at City Airport when it opened in 1987.
City Airport had to close for an hour earlier this month when the front wheel on a similar aircraft bent out of shape. No passengers on that flight were evacuated.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the