British Airways

| October 22, 2010 | 0 Comments

British Airways is the principle air Carrier for the UK. The largest in terms of fleet size and the second largest in terms of passengers flown per year.

British Airways was founded only in the last 36 years after a merger between two of the UK’s other carriers, British airways overseas corporation and British European airways. BA has always been a large Boeing operator, being the largest operator of the b747 . After Their merger with Iberia They became the 3rd largest carrier in terms of number of passengers flown each year.
British Airways started out larger than most airlines because they were just two airlines combined by the government. In the 70’s their fleet was made up of   As you can see they had a pretty amazing fleet I think anyway. So as you can see they had a large Boeing fleet and plan to buy the 787(September 2010). Their fleet has an average age of 11.7 years.

Recently in the last 20 years British Airways was sued by Virgin Atlantic for “dirty tricks” which included, walking up to customers in the Virgin Atlantic area to come over to the BA booth and many other things. They havea few subsidiaries which are, open skies,BA connect, British Airways, and British Airways engineering.

British Airways Cargo is the twelfth largest cargo airline in the world in terms of cargo carried per year. They carry 80,000lbs of fresh produce a year. For their airplanes they wet lease b747-400F’s.

British Airways connect is the regional subsidiary of BA and does domestic/European routes. Their fleet consists of crj’s and aircraft similar to those.

Open Skies operates a 757 that flies from Paris to New York La Gaurdia or to Washington Dulles airport. Open Skies was opened just a couple years ago to supplement the mainline fleet.

British Airways engineering does the engineering work they might help Boeing or Airbus design a plane or help Pratt and Whitney design an engine.

  • In November 1974, British Airways Flight 870 from Dubai to Heathrow, operated by a Vickers vc-10, was hijacked in Dubai, landing at Tripoli for refuelling before flying on to Tunis. One hostage was murdered before the hijackers eventually surrendered after 84 hours. Captain Jim Futcher was awarded the Queens Gallantry medal, the Guild of Air pilots and Air navigators Founders Medal, the British Airlines association’s Gold Medal and a Certificate of Commendation from British Airways for his actions during the hijacking, having returned to the aircraft to fly it knowing the hijackers were on board.
  • On 10 September 1976, a Trident 3b on British Airways Flight 476, flying from London Heathrow to Istanbul collided in mid-air with an Inex Adria DC-9-32 near Zagreb, Croatia, resulting in the 1976 Zagreb collision . All 54 passengers and 9 crew members on the BA aircraft died. This is the only fatal accident to a British Airways aircraft since the company’s formation in 1974.
  • On 24 June 1982, Flight 9, a Boeing 747-200, G-BDXH, City of Edinburgh flew through a cloud of volcanic ash and dust from the eruption of Mount Galunggung, causing extensive damage to the aircraft, including the failure of all four engines. The crew managed to glide the plane out of the dust cloud and restart all four of its engines, although one later had to be shut down again. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport just outside Jakarta. No-one was injured.
  • On 10 June 1990, Flight 5390, a BAC One-Eleven flight between Birmingham and Málaga, suffered a windscreen blowout due to the fitting of incorrect bolts the previous day. The Captain suffered major injuries after being partially sucked out of the aircraft, however the co-pilot landed the plane safely at Southampton Airport.
  • On 2 August 1990, Flight 149 landed at Kuwait International Airport four hours after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, leading to the capture of the passengers and crew, and the destruction of the aircraft.
  • On 11 December 2000, British Airways Flight 2069 from London Gatwick Airport to Nairobi experienced a hijack attempt whilst flying over Sudan. A Kenyan student with a mental illness burst into the cockpit of the Boeing 747. As three crew fought to restrain the man, the auto-pilot became disengaged and the jet dropped 10,000 feet (3,000 m) with 398 passengers on board. However, with the help from the passengers, the pilots recovered the aircraft, successfully restrained the Kenyan with handcuffs and the plane landed safely.Passengers aboard the plane included English singer Bryan Ferry and socialite Jemima Khan.[141]

The damaged British Airways Flight 38

  • On 19 February 2005, the No. 2 engine of a Boeing 747-400 G-BNLG surged (whereby the airflow through the engine reverses) and suffered internal damage just after take off from Los Angeles on a flight to London Heathrow with 16 crew and 351 passengers on board. The crew shut the engine down and continued the climb and continued the flight, in line with BA’s standard operating procedures for 4 engined aircraft. Because it was unable to attain normal cruising speeds and altitudes, the aircraft diverted to Manchester Airport, England. The United States Federal Aviation Administration had been critical of the Captain’s decision and accused BA of operating the aircraft in an non airworthy condition. In June 2006 the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch recommended that the UK and US authorities review the policy on flight continuation and give clear guidance. This has not happened but the FAA have accepted the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority’s determination that the aircraft was airworthy.
  • On 17 January 2008, British Airways Flight 38, a Boeing 777-200ER G-YMMM, flying from Beijing to London, crash-landed approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) short of London Heathrow Airport’s runway 27L, and slid onto the runway’s threshold. This resulted in damage to the landing gear, the wing roots, and the engines, resulting in the first hull loss of a Boeing 777. There were 136 passengers and 16 crew on board. 1 serious and 12 minor injuries were sustained. The initial report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch stated that the engines repeatedly failed to respond to commands for more thrust from both the autothrottle system and from manual intervention, beginning when the aircraft was at an altitude of 600 feet (180 m) and 2 miles (3.2 km) from touchdown. In September 2008, it was revealed that ice in the fuel might have caused the crash. In early 2009, Boeing sent an update to aircraft operators, identifying the problem as specific to the Rolls-Royce engine oil-fuel flow heat exchangers.Overall I think British Airways is a pretty good airline. They have great pilots that can control the airplane unless its in a spiral of course. So when you fly British Airways I hope you have a safe and fun flight.Accident reports courtesy of wikipedia,  fleet reports courtesy of British Airways:
    http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_airways

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