After his engines cut out at 400 feet and he glided (glid?) the plane down to a belly flop landing at Heathrow:
Capt Burkill, one of BA’s most experienced pilots with almost 20 years service, was described as looking "very pale" as the plane was evacuated. The incident was so sudden he did not even have time to send out a mayday distress call.
"Very pale" is somehow so English.
In other news:
The Prime Minister’s motorcade was understood to be on the A30 perimeter road as the stricken aircraft came in to land at 12.42pm, with the convoy experiencing what witnesses described as a "narrow miss".
Damn. Close but no cigar.
4 responses so far ↓
1 john b // Jan 18, 2008 at 10:48 am
Lolz. Still, on the plus side, it was clearly far too close to have been a terrorist attack…
2 Martin // Jan 18, 2008 at 11:08 am
“glided (glid?)”
Glode?
3 JuliaM // Jan 18, 2008 at 11:55 am
Pity Brown decided to get some publicity by ‘praising the skills of the pilot’:
“It’s at times like these you remember you are in the hands of staff who do a remarkable job. “
Especially since it invites such easy comparison with all the latest evidence that cabinet ministers do a far less remarkable and professional job….
4 Dave Petterson // Jan 18, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Just goes to show that even God doesn’t get it right all the time.
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