Last Thursday, when a plane lost power seconds before landing at Heathrow Airport, co-pilot John Coward was forced to rely on his skill and intuition to guide the free-falling plane down to earth.
You’re in the cockpit of a Boeing 777, and the plane is just two miles from its destination – London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest. 600 feet above the ground, you’re about to swerve the aircraft in for a smooth landing on the runway, when both engines shudder to a halt, and your dashboard navigational system blanks out.
The plane has lost power, and you’re rapidly careening towards the ground below.
Sound like a scenario from one of your nightmares? Well, for the crew of British Airways flight 038, this frightening experience is no mere bad dream – last Thursday, their greatest fears came true. When the aircraft lost power seconds before landing at Heathrow, co-pilot John Coward was forced to rely on his skill and intuition to guide the free-falling plane down to earth.
Suffice it to say, it wasn’t the smoothest of landings – the plane missed the runway by 1,000 feet, and skidded across the grass onto the pavement, narrowly avoiding a busy freeway. Part of the landing gear was ripped off in the impact, and the engine and wings were damaged as well.
Luckily, all 152 of the flight’s passengers and crew landed safely, with only one report of serious injury. Things could have been far, far worse.
Captain Peter Burkill credited his remarkable team for bringing the plane safely to earth in the blackout: “Flying is about teamwork - and we had an outstanding team on board yesterday,” he said in a statement.
“I am proud to say that every member of the team played their part expertly, displaying the highest standards of skill and professionalism. No one more so than my senior first officer John Coward - who was the handling pilot in the final stages of the flight - and did the most remarkable job.”
It seems that the courageous Coward really is a man of his word, too. When a neighbor, Valerie Firminger, asked him several months ago how he’d respond in a hypothetical emergency, “he mulled it over for a couple seconds and said that if only one engine failed than he would probably be able to cope with none of the passengers the wiser,” she told The Daily Mail. “But if both went, he said, ‘I’d glide it in as best as possible’ and then with a smile he added ‘and hope for the best’.”
“If I ever was in that situation, there is nobody else I’d want behind the controls,” she added.
We’ll echo that. In fact, we may have to plan all our future flights around this guy’s schedule, just in case.