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Concorde makes emergency stop in Canada |
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August 1, 2000
LONDON (AP) - A British Airways Concorde flying from London to New York had to make an emergency stop in eastern Canada after a crew member smelled gasoline in the cabin, the airline said. Emergency vehicles were on alert Sunday as the Concorde descended into the Gander, Newfoundland, airport but the landing went ahead without incident, Canada's transportation ministry said. "It is purely a precautionary measure," said British Airways spokeswoman Jemma Moore in London. "The captain became aware of a smell at rear of the cabin, and we never take any chances." It was the second problem with one of British Airways' supersonic luxury jets Sunday and the third in two days - all after an Air France Concorde crashed Tuesday outside Paris, killing 114 people. French investigators looking into the crash said Sunday that flames spewing from the back of the plane were likely caused by a major fuel leak. Passengers on Sunday's Concorde flight - including entertainers Tony Bennett and George Benson - were told midway across the Atlantic that an emergency landing was planned, according to Norwegian businessman Jostein Svendsen who was on the flight. "Considering the Paris crash, of course quite a lot of passengers got quite nervous and quite upset," said Svendsen in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. "But it wasn't full panic, as you may expect." Sunday's British Airways Flight 003, which had been scheduled to fly from London's Heathrow airport to New York's John F. Kennedy airport, was grounded in Gander pending safety checks. The airline chartered a Boeing 737 to take the 57 passengers to New York on a flight leaving at 2:45 a.m. local time (0515 GMT). British Airways engineers from New York were being flown in late Sunday to inspect the aircraft. Earlier in the day, a Concorde was unable to take off from Heathrow because of a refueling problem, the airline said. That flight to New York, scheduled to depart at 10:30 a.m., was delayed for more than an hour. The airline called the procedure "standard." Passengers were diverted to another plane, and the morning flight arrived safely in New York, spokeswoman Moore said. On Saturday evening, fire trucks and ambulances were put on standby at Heathrow after a Concorde flight from New York to London experienced a mixture of fuel and air in the engine. A loud bang was heard inside the jet, which was "something like an engine backfiring," a British Airways' spokeswoman said. Air France grounded its fleet of five remaining Concordes after Tuesday's tragic crash. British Airways is the only other airline that operate Concordes, and it resumed flights on most of its seven supersonic jets the day after the crash. Despite the three recent incidents, British Airways expected to continue operating regular service out of London and New York on Monday, spokeswoman Moore said. "We wouldn't be flying unless we thought it was safe," she said. Looking into Tuesday's crash, France's Transportation Ministry said Friday that at least one tire had exploded on the plane's undercarriage, "which could have triggered a chain of events, structural damages, a fire and an engine breakdown." On Sunday, the Accident and Inquiry Office, part of France's Transportation Ministry, said that "the flames seen after takeoff did not come from the engine, but, in all likelihood, from a major fuel leak." Air France Flight 4590 went down Tuesday minutes after takeoff when the jet crashed in a ball of flames into a small hotel in the town of Gonesse, near Charles de Gaulle airport. All 109 people on board were killed and five bystanders died on the ground.
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