Fears and gratitude of those who survived
MEMORIAL MARKS 30 YEARS ON FROM THE M1 AIR DISASTER
EXACTLY 30 years after his commuter plane crashed on to an embankment of the M1 in the Midlands, one of the survivors of the Kegworth air disaster wiped away a tear and said the fear of flying had never left him.
Leslie Bloomer was not supposed to have been on the British Midland Boeing 737 en route to Belfast in January 1989.
He had arrived at Heathrow three hours early with friends, he said, and one had suggested they catch an earlier flight.
Travelling to yesterday’s memorial service, Mr Bloomer, now 57, said he was shaking before his flight from Northern Ireland took off.
“If they’d have opened the door and said, ‘Do you want to get out?’, I’d have got out,” he said. “Flying is still tough for me but I’m very glad to come here.
“I’ve met people that I haven’t seen for 20-odd years. To meet nurses, ambulance crews, the fire service – it’s brilliant.”
Seeing the impact on the village of Kegworth, in the Leicestershire countryside, had also been an inspiration, he said.
Mr Bloomer added: “I actually had a flashback at the weekend of the last 10 seconds or so before it hit the ground and I could imagine the pilot sitting there trying to steer it and then the thud on the ground.
“When the plane stopped moving I was sitting there and, for a second or two, I wasn’t sure whether I was dead or alive.”
SURVIVORS AND families of some of the 47 people killed in the Kegworth air disaster attended a church service and wreath-laying ceremony yesterday to mark its 30th anniversary.
The British Midland Boeing 737 was on its way to Belfast when it suffered engine trouble and came down on an embankment on the M1 in the Midlands.
Families, emergency services, councils and others laid wreaths at a memorial site in the Leicestershire village. A minute’s silence was held for the victims at the end of a 45-minute service, during which their names were read out. Around 300 people attended.
Some of those who had flown from Northern Ireland to attend the commemorations wiped away tears as villagers paid their respects.
Rev Lauretta Wilson, who led the service, said: “Kegworth has never forgotten that fateful night on January 8 1989.
“Whatever our motivations, it is good to have the opportunity to remember and honour those who lost their lives.
“The dreadful event shook all of our communities.”
The plane, with 126 people on board, had taken off from Heathrow just before 8pm.
Loud bangs were heard from the left-hand engine as an evening meal was served to the 118 passengers.
But Captain Kevin Hunt and his co-pilot, David McClelland, shut down the correctly-working right-hand engine, and efforts to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport failed.
Instead, the plane, which was on fire and had blazing debris dropping from it, came down on the M1 embankment, with the East Midlands runway only a few hundred yards away.
Despite the crash, nobody on the ground was injured and some of the passengers were able to walk away unscathed.
Most of the deaths occurred at the front of the plane but 79 people, including the two pilots, survived.
A number of safety improvements were made as the airline industry learned from the disaster. They include better communication between the cockpit and the cabin, following the revelation that the passengers and cabin crew did not alert the pilot to his error, despite having seen the original malfunction to the left-hand engine.
The crash investigation also led to more focus on preparing passengers for emergencies.