On the morning of May 24, 2013, London’s Heathrow Airport was buzzing with its usual rhythm. For the crew of British Airways Flight 762, it was supposed to be a routine two-hour hop to Oslo, Norway. The aircraft was an 11-year-old Airbus A319, a reliable workhorse of the skies.
The Captain was a veteran with 12,500 hours of experience, while his 33-year-old First Officer had a solid 5,000 hours. Neither of them knew that as they sat in the cockpit, a catastrophic failure was already hiding in plain sight.
The Walk-Around That Missed Everything
Before every flight, a pilot must perform a “walk-around” to inspect the plane. That morning, the First Officer donned his high-visibility jacket and circled the jet. Everything looked normal.
But it wasn’t. The night before, maintenance technicians had left the fan cowl doors—the large metallic “shells” that cover the engines—unlatched. Through a series of bizarre coincidences involving a missing tool and a mix-up with a neighboring aircraft, the technicians never came back to close them.
Chaos Seconds After Takeoff
At 8:16 AM, the plane roared down Runway 27L. As it reached takeoff speed, the force of the oncoming air caught the unlatched doors. Passengers watched in sheer horror as the heavy engine covers swung wide open, flapping violently like broken wings before being torn completely off the aircraft.
Inside the cockpit, the pilots felt nothing—at first. It wasn’t until they heard other pilots on the radio reporting “metallic debris” on the runway that they realized Flight 762 was in serious trouble.
A Waterfall of Fuel
As the plane climbed over the suburbs of London, the situation spiraled. The torn-off doors had sliced through vital internal tubing.
Hydraulic Failure: The “Yellow” hydraulic system ran dry, disabling wing spoilers and reverse thrusters.
The Leak: A massive fuel leak began in the right engine. Jet fuel was gushing out at a staggering rate of 120 kilograms per minute.
The lead flight attendant rushed to a window and saw exposed tubes and wires where a sleek engine should have been. Back in the cockpit, the pilots saw a growing “fuel imbalance.” The right wing was losing weight so fast the plane was becoming lopsided.
The Fire in the Sky
The Captain made a high-stakes gamble. Standard procedure dictated shutting down the damaged engine immediately, but they were over Central London. If the other engine failed, they would have nowhere to glide. He decided to keep both engines running as long as possible to reach the runway.
Just as they lined up for their final approach to Heathrow, a loud BANG rocked the plane. The right engine, starved of fuel and battered by the wind, finally gave up. Seconds later, the most dreaded alarm in aviation blared: ENGINE FIRE.
The torrent of leaking fuel had ignited. A massive plume of black smoke and orange flames trailed behind the jet, visible to thousands of terrified onlookers on the ground.
Touchdown and Escape
The Captain took the controls for the final 500 feet. With one engine dead and the other potentially failing, he slammed the jet onto the runway. He braked so hard a tire burst, but the plane finally slowed to a halt.
Emergency crews were already there, dousing the flaming engine in foam. Within two minutes, all 75 passengers and 5 crew members slid down the emergency chutes. Every single person survived.
The Anatomy of a Mistake
The investigation revealed a “Swiss Cheese” model of failure:
The Technicians: Lost track of their work and checked the wrong plane.
The Pilots: Missed the slightly ajar latches during the morning inspection because they were difficult to see from a standing height.
Lessons Learned: Today, if you look at an Airbus A320 family engine, you might notice bright fluorescent paint on the latches or small flags. These were added specifically because of Flight 762, making it nearly impossible for a pilot to miss an unlatched door again.
