BMI A321 Emergency

i to have been wondering where the pictures of the rest of the plane are apart from the nose

Some people here have hit the nail right on the head as far as I’m concerned.

Batbay – ‘Why fly through it?’ Exactly what I was thinking. It would seem to me that the flightcrew failed to use their weather radar properly to identify oncoming CB activity and were therefore masters of their own destiny.

Kev35 – ‘Interesting that there are no pictures of the damage said to have been inflicted in the fuselage and wings.’ The damage to the radome and the crack in the windscreen appear to me to be largely cosmetic. What would bother me more is whether the leading edges of the wings containing the high lift devices (eg slats) would deploy for landing coupled with loss of lift due to dent induced misshapen leading edges. I can’t imagine the engine fan blades were too happy with their lot either!

EGNM – ‘Stricken Holiday jet limps back into Manchester’, ‘Plummiting thousends of feet’ and ‘Thrown uncontrollably through the skies’. I’m with you on this about media reporting. I bet you that aircraft was never ‘uncontrollable’, never ‘plummiting’ (sic) and I’ve never seen an Airbus with a ‘limp’. Pathetic glitzing up for reader appeal yet completely missing the material that mattered. More useful as tommorrows chip wrapper than todays news journal!

regards
wys

Originally posted by EGNM

2. bmi are doing themselves no favours by doing the opposite an PLAYING DOWN the situation…
– “The aircraft, as a precautionary measure, is now with the airline’s engineers for a detailed inspection.”

Just a precaution was it??

– A spokeswoman for bmi said no-one had been injured and passengers were not at risk. She insisted there was only minor damage to the nose cone.

Yea, a fullly penetrated nose cone and windscreen damage does look minor to me!

Sorry but the airlines are now starting to over counteract bad publicity by “Stretching the truth!”

yea agrred as stated above the airlines do no favours for themselves

Well airlines always underplay incidents and the media always overplay them. That’s just life.

So why get upset at the media and not at the airline as well?

It was certainly poor PR to downplay the incident to the extent that they did, whilst photos of the nosecone are splashed over the papers. What they should have done was say it could have been serious, but the design of the aircraft and the ability of the pilot contributed to make sure it ended up only as a relatively minor incident. They need to give the impression (even if only the impression) of utter honesty with the media and explain the facts in a succint but convincing and balanced manner. Not just wave it all off.

yea thinking of it there was the ground accident at BHD too, and i think there still might b the odd one stored at EMA! – i think MIDJ was one of those stored after 9/11

the facts will b there in the end. The a/c DID suffer damage, as bmi underplayed , but the Media as has often happened have Overplayed event. The concrete facts are there through pictures and possable injuries sustained. So it’s Not whats portayed, but HOW which i am questioning.

Hope you get me drift!

lol – perhaps that’s the case, Kev.

Whatever happened on the inside though, the aircraft itself ended up with a broken nose!

Michael.

Perhaps they mean the locker was unhurt?

Regards,

kev35

A spokeswoman for bmi said no-one had been injured and passengers were not at risk.

This report – did it or did it not say that an old man cracked his head open on an overhead locker? Therefore, why is not qualifying as an injury?

Another question for Wysiwyg I think. Why fly through it?

Originally posted by EGNM
this afternoons news bullitins have gone from starting this morning of with “Holiday Jet suffers damage after passing storm with Golf ball size hailstones” right through to “Stricken Holiday jet limps back into Manchester” after “Plummiting thousends of feet” and been “Thrown uncontrollably through the skies”. Yes its a news worthey story, BUT THE MEDIA HAVE TO PORTRAY IT IN A FAIR AND ACCURATE MANOR, which often becomes disputable…..

The damage that we can see in the photograph shown certainly looks substantial. Interesting that there are no pictures of the damage said to have been inflicted in the fuselage and wings. This is a newsworthy event but the press have to decide who they believe to be right. You have passengers on that aircraft who will have been terrified and others who probably found the whole experience exhilarating. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. As tp your fair and appropriate manner there appear to have been a number of eyewitness accounts telling of passengers being hurled about. Perhaps it was the right decision to continue through the storm rather than having to descend through it in such adverse conditions.

Regards,

kev35

this afternoons news bullitins have gone from starting this morning of with “Holiday Jet suffers damage after passing storm with Golf ball size hailstones” right through to “Stricken Holiday jet limps back into Manchester” after “Plummiting thousends of feet” and been “Thrown uncontrollably through the skies”. Yes its a news worthey story, BUT THE MEDIA HAVE TO PORTRAY IT IN A FAIR AND ACCURATE MANOR, which often becomes disputable.

Lighning strikes and hailstorm encounters are everyday occurances, but not nessecerily of this magnitude. These facts are not stressed. If the safety of the aircraft was a question he would have DIVERTED IMMIDIATLY

Preston, how can you say the media overreacted?

It was an event that scared some people and would be of interest to many more. Therefore it is newsworthy.

The fact that the situation was not as serious as most people imagine does not detract from the newsworthiness of the story. To be fair, both The Evening Standard and the BBC pointed to the airline’s view on that so as not to cause panic.

I think you’re being too harsh on the media in this case.

For those who care… The aircraft was G-MIDJ.

to b fair it doesn’t take much to penetrate fibreglass when travelling at cruise speeds. A few thigs i’d like to point out, form both sides…

1. Media scaremongering… AGAIN the situation has probably been blown out of hand. If the plane had suffered MAJOR damage to a critical system they’d have landed in Germany ASAP. The a/c was ovre Stuttgart at the time. I think the main system damaged here looks to b the Weather Radar situated within the nose…

2. bmi are doing themselves no favours by doing the opposite an PLAYING DOWN the situation…
– “The aircraft, as a precautionary measure, is now with the airline’s engineers for a detailed inspection.”

Just a precaution was it??

– A spokeswoman for bmi said no-one had been injured and passengers were not at risk. She insisted there was only minor damage to the nose cone.

Yea, a fullly penetrated nose cone and windscreen damage does look minor to me!

Sorry but the airlines are now starting to over counteract bad publicity by “Stretching the truth!”

Anyone know the reg of the plane? G-MID?

Thats some heavy hail stones. At least everyone made it of safely which is the main thing.

longer story with more details in the Evening Times…

TERRIFIED passengers were hurled around a plane when it was hit by a hail and lightning storm at 34,000ft.

The travellers – including some from the west of Scotland – screamed as the holiday jet was pounded by hailstones as big as golf balls.

Many were thrown from their seats and hit the ceiling and overhead lockers as the plane suddenly plunged thousands of feet.

Hailstones punched a hole the size of a football into the nose cone and cracked the cockpit windscreen.

The drama happened as the 213 passengers were returning to Manchester from Cyprus after a cruise holiday.

The bmi Airbus A321 was flying over Germany when the pilot warned of turbulence ahead – then all hell broke loose.

The aircraft plunged, with passengers hurled out of their seats and fearing for their lives.

Passenger Gary McIlroy, 35, from Westerwood, Cumbernauld, said yesterday’s drama was the most terrifying experience of his life.

Gary, who had been on holiday with his fiancee Gi-Gi from Singapore, said: “I thought my time was up.

“We went into a dive about four times and everyone was screaming.

“There was an elderly couple behind us and the woman fainted and her husband cracked his head on an overhead locker.

“The hailstones pounding the plane felt like someone hitting the roof with a hammer – and this kept happening for 45 minutes.”

Gary, a manager with car dealer Reg Vardy, added: “It was incredible, I’m still traumatised speaking about it. I’m never going to set foot in a plane again.”

The plane landed safely at Manchester Airport last night with a badly damaged nose-cone, cracked windscreen and pock-marks along the wing and fuselage.

Bruce Johnstone, 47, a New Zealand photojournalist, took pictures of the damaged plane after he got off. He said: “It was like a hail of bullets and then a huge thump. Everyone was screaming and we are all lucky to be alive.

“But the crew had everything under control and nobody was hurt.

“Everyone clapped and cheered when we landed.

“The nose cone was stoved in and there were cracks on the windscreen. It was pretty ragged.”

The passengers, who were returning from a week-long Mediterranean cruise, said it felt like a rollercoaster ride.

The shocked pilot told them he had experienced nothing like it in 20 years of flying.

Flight BD8412 got into trouble two-and-half hours into the four-and-half-hour trip from Larnaca in Cyprus.

Builder David Mallon, 59, from Salford, near Manchester, said: “The pilot came on and said he was expecting some turbulence and could we return to our seats. As he said that all hell broke loose.

“The plane just dropped and started vibrating. Everybody was stuck on the ceiling.

“We were out of our seats for a few seconds and that happened two or three times. There were people in the aisles.”

Bruce Johnstone’s wife Janet, 49, said: “There was a little girl behind us who was very distressed and I said ‘have you been to Disney? This is just like being on a roller coaster. It’s going to be all right’.”

A spokesman for Manchester Airport confirmed the plane had been damaged by a lightning strike and hailstorm. Air accident investigators had been informed.

A spokeswoman for bmi said no-one had been injured and passengers were not at risk. She insisted there was only minor damage to the nose cone.

Now, if that’s only minor damage to the nose cone, I’d like to see what bmi class as major damage…

what a mess! – where did she divert to EMA?

I have found a story on it on Skynews.com, its looks in pretty bad shape! 🙁

Full Story:

GIANT HAILSTONES HIT JET

Hailstones the size of golf balls have been blamed after a British passenger plane plunged thousands of feet.

Passengers were said to have screamed in terror during the freak lightning storm which left the aircraft’s nose badly damaged.

The BMI Airbus was returning to Manchester from Cyprus.

One passenger, Bruce Johnson, who took this picture, told Sky News: “People were thrown violently against their seatbelts but luckily nobody seemed to be hurt.

“We had been warned of turbulence during the flight but it was only when we landed that we saw the damage done to the plane.

“The aircrew were marvellous and very professional.

“The pilot said it was the worst thing he had flown into in 20 years, but he said ‘don’t let that put you off flying.'”

In a statement, BMI said: “The Aircraft flying from Larnaca in Cyprus experienced adverse weather conditions during the flight.

“While it sustained visible external damage, none of the aircraft’s operational control systems were affected.

“The aircraft, as a precautionary measure, is now with the airline’s engineers for a detailed inspection.”