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My escape from BA038 was damn fun
By Francis Charig
Jan Moir commented in Wednesday’s Telegraph on the compensation culture when she reflected upon possible legal action by a few passengers who were on the Beijing flight that crash-landed at Heathrow.
I was on that flight, BA038, on January 17. This is, so far as I can recall, what happened...
None of us were alerted to there being any danger as the pilots sought to land; consequently none of the passengers went through the trauma of thinking that they might die. The landing was a little heavy but I've been on numerous other journeys where it has been almost as bad.
My colleague travelling with me did suffer whiplash and was in hospital for a short while later that evening. However, the landing was so unsurprising that it was insufficient to stop me working on my Sudoku puzzle.
The announcement for us to evacuate the plane was made calmly and was a surprise to me. I doubt if you've had to go down a chute before but it was damn fun; I would have loved to have had another go but we were being taken well away from the plane to safety.
There was sufficient time for me to say jokingly but forcefully to the stewardess standing by the emergency door, "Women pilots!"; she explained, smiling, that both the Captain and co-pilot were male.
The crew organised a calm and smooth evacuation. At the bottom of the chute we were walked well away from the plane. I had no jacket, no phone, no computer, no wallet and no passport and it was cold, but it wasn't too bad because I still had my Sudoku book and a pencil!
The police arrived quickly and escorted us safely away from the plane while we waited for the buses to arrive. Everyone was calm, some took photos, others were laughing, people seemed quite relaxed.
Evacuation of the plane had only taken a couple of minutes and for anyone to think that we were threatened with death by an exploding plane, as has been reported, stretches credibility.
The processing in the terminal wasn't so good. Understandably the police had to treat the plane as a crime scene but BAA seemed to show little concern for the fact that we had been in an accident; they were at that stage unaware of what had happened and should have assumed that events had been more severe. They also seemed surprised that there could have been a plane crash at the airport.
However, the police were wonderful, there was medical treatment immediately made available and, after we were processed, so far as I am aware, we were all given enough cash to get home in a black cab.
I was home four hours late, hardly material. Within one day I had my cabin luggage delivered to my home and within two I had received the suitcase placed in the hold, again delivered to me. Nothing was damaged or missing.
I was very quickly assigned my own point of contact for BA Customer Support on behalf of Willie Walsh, the CEO. I was offered a 'fear of flying' course which my colleague took BA up on.
On Sunday, I shall be flying to Barcelona; the following weekend I fly to San Francisco. It seems absurd to me that a fault that is most probably nothing to do with the airline should cause me to think of suing BA.
I quickly made it clear to the Willie Walsh contact that I would not be seeking any compensation because the crash landing had resulted in no [additional] physical or mental problems, no loss or damage to any of my possessions, and the BA pilots had managed to get me back home in one piece.
I have seen several articles about passengers seeking to make claims and it's possible that one or two have some legitimacy.
For me it has been a fantastic experience. I'm now the centre of attention at dinner parties and, most important, the mothers at my younger son's school keep on coming up to me to check that I'm okay. It's like a badge of honour. Now I've had my accident, everyone is asking me to accompany them on their next flight as surely lightning won't strike twice. I'll take them up on the offer but it has to be a First Class seat.
By Francis Charig
Jan Moir commented in Wednesday’s Telegraph on the compensation culture when she reflected upon possible legal action by a few passengers who were on the Beijing flight that crash-landed at Heathrow.
I was on that flight, BA038, on January 17. This is, so far as I can recall, what happened...
None of us were alerted to there being any danger as the pilots sought to land; consequently none of the passengers went through the trauma of thinking that they might die. The landing was a little heavy but I've been on numerous other journeys where it has been almost as bad.
My colleague travelling with me did suffer whiplash and was in hospital for a short while later that evening. However, the landing was so unsurprising that it was insufficient to stop me working on my Sudoku puzzle.
The announcement for us to evacuate the plane was made calmly and was a surprise to me. I doubt if you've had to go down a chute before but it was damn fun; I would have loved to have had another go but we were being taken well away from the plane to safety.
There was sufficient time for me to say jokingly but forcefully to the stewardess standing by the emergency door, "Women pilots!"; she explained, smiling, that both the Captain and co-pilot were male.
The crew organised a calm and smooth evacuation. At the bottom of the chute we were walked well away from the plane. I had no jacket, no phone, no computer, no wallet and no passport and it was cold, but it wasn't too bad because I still had my Sudoku book and a pencil!
The police arrived quickly and escorted us safely away from the plane while we waited for the buses to arrive. Everyone was calm, some took photos, others were laughing, people seemed quite relaxed.
Evacuation of the plane had only taken a couple of minutes and for anyone to think that we were threatened with death by an exploding plane, as has been reported, stretches credibility.
The processing in the terminal wasn't so good. Understandably the police had to treat the plane as a crime scene but BAA seemed to show little concern for the fact that we had been in an accident; they were at that stage unaware of what had happened and should have assumed that events had been more severe. They also seemed surprised that there could have been a plane crash at the airport.
However, the police were wonderful, there was medical treatment immediately made available and, after we were processed, so far as I am aware, we were all given enough cash to get home in a black cab.
I was home four hours late, hardly material. Within one day I had my cabin luggage delivered to my home and within two I had received the suitcase placed in the hold, again delivered to me. Nothing was damaged or missing.
I was very quickly assigned my own point of contact for BA Customer Support on behalf of Willie Walsh, the CEO. I was offered a 'fear of flying' course which my colleague took BA up on.
On Sunday, I shall be flying to Barcelona; the following weekend I fly to San Francisco. It seems absurd to me that a fault that is most probably nothing to do with the airline should cause me to think of suing BA.
I quickly made it clear to the Willie Walsh contact that I would not be seeking any compensation because the crash landing had resulted in no [additional] physical or mental problems, no loss or damage to any of my possessions, and the BA pilots had managed to get me back home in one piece.
I have seen several articles about passengers seeking to make claims and it's possible that one or two have some legitimacy.
For me it has been a fantastic experience. I'm now the centre of attention at dinner parties and, most important, the mothers at my younger son's school keep on coming up to me to check that I'm okay. It's like a badge of honour. Now I've had my accident, everyone is asking me to accompany them on their next flight as surely lightning won't strike twice. I'll take them up on the offer but it has to be a First Class seat.
