THE JAKARTA INCIDENT

THE JAKARTA INCIDENT(JUNE 24, 1982)

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

It was a routine flight, but British Airways Flight 9 was about to become one of the most dramatic incidents in aviation history. On 24 June 1982, the Boeing 747-200 was cruising at 37,000 feet, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, when it flew into a cloud of volcanic ash.

Suddenly, all four engines flamed out, leaving the pilots with no power and no thrust. The passengers, who had been dozing and watching in-flight movies just moments before, were now jolted awake by the sound of silence.

The pilots tried everything to restart the engines, but nothing worked. Meanwhile, the plane was rapidly losing altitude, and the temperature inside the cabin was plummeting. The situation was desperate, and the pilots knew that they had to act fast.

With remarkable calmness and professionalism, they immediately diverted to Jakarta, hoping to glide past the mountains in Indonesia and make a “crash landing” safely. For 23 tense minutes, the plane glided through the volcanic ash cloud, buffeted by turbulence and with no power. It was a nightmare scenario.

But then, miraculously, the pilots managed to restart all four engines, and the plane landed safely in Jakarta. None of the 268 passengers and crew were lost. The incident became known as the Jakarta incident, and it remains one of the most astonishing stories of aviation survival.

After the incident, extensive research was done on the effects of volcanic ash on airplane engines. The incident led to new protocols and procedures for pilots and airlines to follow when encountering volcanic ash, which ultimately improved aviation safety.

Article taken from www.quora.com
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