Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Horrible tragedy, amazing heroism
THE STORY OF BOAC FLIGHT 712 AND THE COURAGEOUS ACTION OF CREW WHO SAVED MORE THAN 100 LIVES 50 YEARS AGO
IT WAS a sunny day when the plane took off from Heathrow Airport, and it was still sunny when it returned to Earth four minutes later.
On the face of it, BOAC Flight 712 was unremarkable. It took off from Heathrow on April 8 1968, bound for Zurich, where it would then move on to Sydney, Australia.
However, no-one was aware of a serious defect in one of the Boeing 707’s engines, which would lead to this routine flight becoming anything but that.
This defect would tragically lead to the deaths of five of the 127 people on board, a total that could have been far higher if not for the heroics of the crew.
Flight 712, also known as Whiskey Echo, took off at 3.27pm under the control of pilot captain Charles Taylor.
Taylor was supported by senior first officer Francis Kirkland, acting first officer John Hutchinson, engineering officer Thomas Hicks and supervisory captain Geoffrey Moss.
Immediately after take off there was a large bang, and instruments showed that number two engine, on the port side (left hand side) of the plane, was losing power.
The plane began to shake. Captain Moss, who was on the plane to conduct a performance review of captain Taylor, looked out the window of the cockpit to see what was wrong with the engine.
“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed. “The wing’s on fire!”
It would later become apparent that a compressor wheel in the engine had burst due to fatigue, which in turn released fuel that ignited in the high temperatures of the engine.
In the confused atmosphere of the cockpit, flight engineer Hicks reached for, but did not pull, the fuel shut-off handle. If he had, the fuel flow to that engine would have stopped.
At 3.29pm, two minutes after taking off, captain Taylor broadcast a mayday call.
Back in the control tower at Heathrow, airport traffic controller John Davis looked on in horror.
Davis had initially thought the bright light he could see was the sunlight reflecting off the plane’s wing, but he quickly realised it was fire.
Davis alerted the emergency services and declared an aircraft accident, while trying to guide the plane to runway 28L.
Back on the plane, the situation was precarious as the windows near the fire began to melt under the heat of the flames.
The situation then took a turn for the worse when the pylons holding the engine onto the wing gave way, causing the engine to fall 3,000 feet to the ground.
In a remarkable twist of fate, it fell into a gravel pit in Thorpe where a group of children were playing, but incredibly missed them all.
At 3.31pm, just four minutes after take off, the plane was back on the ground having landed on fire. However, the plane had not been able to make it to runway 28L, so it had touched down on 05R.
Cabin crew began evacuating the plane before it had even come to a full stop on the runway, but the evacuation was about to become considerably more difficult.
After the plane had stopped, the fire ignited fuel lines and oxygen tanks in the wing, causing a series of explosions that set fire to the cabin.
The majority of the passengers escaped through the starboard (right-hand side) galley door, although some took other routes before the fire made them impassible.
Although most of the passengers made it out, four, including a disabled woman and an eight-year-old girl, were trapped at the rear of the plane.
Stewardess Jane Harrison, who was the last crew member on board, had been about to jump out the plane, but went back inside in an attempt to rescue the trapped passengers.
Sadly, Miss Harrison and the four passengers were not able to make it out, and they lost their lives in the fire.
A report into the incident by the Board of Trade found that if the fuel shut-off valve had been closed, it might have prevented the spread of the fire.
The same report found that due to failures in fire service equipment and the way it was deployed, the efficiency of the fire service was significantly reduced.
It was also noted that as the plane had landed on a different runway to what had been originally planned, the fire crews had not been able to put down a layer of foam as they usually did.
However, the report did note that fire crews successfully prevented the fire spreading to the other wing of the aircraft, where 3,000 gallons of fuel was stored.
Praise was given to the cabin crew for the way they handled the evacuation of the plane, with Ms Harrison being posthumously awarded the George Cross, the youngest female recipent of the medal.
Neville Davis-Gordon, senior steward, was awarded the British Empire Medal for Gallantry for his actions, while air traffic controller John Davis was appointed an MBE.
All members of the flight crew received commendations from BOAC, apart from flight engineer Thomas Hicks.
Captain Taylor was also awarded the British Airline Pilots Association Gold Medal for his actions in safely landing an aircraft which had lost an engine, almost certainly saving 122 lives in the process, including his own.