Nick Stevenson

British Midland Flight 92

The scene of the disaster, with the runway that G-OBME failed to reach at the top of the picture.
Accident summary
Date	8 January 1989
Summary	Engine fan blade fracture due to design flaw, pilot error
Site	Kegworth, Leicestershire, England 52°49′55″N 1°17′57.5″W / 52.83194°N 1.299306°W / 52.83194; -1.299306Coordinates: 52°49′55″N 1°17′57.5″W / 52.83194°N 1.299306°W / 52.83194; -1.299306
Passengers	118
Crew	8
Fatalities	47
Injuries (non-fatal)	74
Survivors	79 (71 passengers and all 8 crew)
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-400
Operator	British Midland
Registration	G-OBME
Flight origin	London Heathrow Airport
Destination	Belfast International Airport

The Kegworth air disaster occurred when a Boeing 737-400 crashed on to the embankment of the M1 motorway near Kegworth, Leicestershire, England, while attempting to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport on 8 January 1989.

British Midland Flight 92 was on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow Airport to Belfast Airport, when a fan-blade broke in the left engine, disrupting the air conditioning and filling the flight deck with smoke. The pilots believed that this indicated a fault in the right engine, since earlier models of the 737 ventilated the flight-deck from the right, and they were unaware that the 400 used a different system. The crew mistakenly shut down the good engine, and pumped more fuel into the malfunctioning one, which burst into flames. Of the 126 people aboard, 47 died and 74 sustained serious injuries.

The inquiry attributed the blade fracture to metal fatigue, caused by heavy vibration in the newly upgraded engines, which had only been tested in the laboratory and not under representative flight conditions.

The aircraft was a British Midland-operated Boeing 737-4Y0, registration G-OBME, on a scheduled flight from London Heathrow Airport to Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland, having already flown from Heathrow to Belfast and back that day. The plane was new, having accumulated 521 airframe hours since it first went into service in 15 October 1988.

The flight was crewed by 43-year-old Captain Kevin Hunt and 39-year-old First Officer David McClelland. Captain Hunt was a veteran British Midland pilot who had been with the airline since 1966 and had approximately 13,200 hours of flying experience. First Officer McClelland joined British Midland in 1988 and had accrued roughly 3,300 total flight hours. Between them, the pilots had close to 1,000 hours in the Boeing 737 cockpit, only 76 of which were logged in Boeing 737-400 series aircraft.

After taking off from Heathrow at 19:52, Flight BD 092 was climbing through 28,300 feet to reach its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet when a blade detached from the fan of the port (left) CFM International CFM56 engine. While the pilots did not know the source of the problem, a pounding noise was suddenly heard, accompanied by severe vibrations. In addition, smoke poured into the cabin through the ventilation system and a burning smell entered the plane. Several passengers sitting near the rear of the plane noticed smoke and sparks coming from the left engine.