A HERO British Airways pilot who saved hundreds when all four engines of his 747 stopped has died.
Captain Eric Moody died aged 84 this week, decades after he was responsible for saving 263 people in June 1982.
Eric Moody Pilot Who Captained British Airways Flight 009 has diedRex
PAMoody received the Hugh Gordon Burge Memorial Award in 1982[/caption]
All four engines of the jumbo jet died mid-air after his plane got into trouble over Jakarta as a nearby volcano erupted.
Ash had been fired into the atmosphere by Mount Galunggung, found 110km southeast of the Indonesian capital.
Flight 009, as it was officially named, has now been dubbed the ‘Jakarta Incident’ after it flew through the cloud on its journey between Kuala Lumpur and Perth.
Reports said passengers were in awe of an electrical light storm outside the plane, but the engines then glowed white and died.
At the time, Moody was on his way to the plane’s bathroom but was summoned back to the cockpit.
He told Australian Aviation: “On the way back, I noticed puffs of smoke billowing out of the floor vents and there was an acrid smell or ionised electrical smell.”
Moody got on the intercom and informed passengers there was a “small problem”.
He said: “All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
After 12 minutes, the plane flew out of the ash cloud and the engines remarkably restarted.
Moody was able to fly the ‘City of Edinburgh’ to safety and he was eventually given the control column as a memento.
Passenger Arthur Ewen, of Scarborough described the flight in 2012 as “horrific”.
He said: “It still affects me and Shirley today. The cabin was quiet, people were praying. We just hugged and held hands.”
In 2010, he told The Times the experience was: “a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse”.
According to AirlineRatings, Moody flew with BA for 32 years, retiring in 1996 with over 17,000 flight hours.
The ‘Jakarta Incident’
BA plane City of Edinburgh a 747-200 jumbo jet was flying between Kuala Lumpur and Perth when tragedy almost struck.
The plane carried 263 passengers and was cruising at 37,000 feet over the ocean when it flew through an ash cloud, killing all four engines.
Passengers reported seeing the four Rolls Royce RB-211 turn white and then spit flames before dying.
Moody and first officer Roger Greaves saw intense St Elmo’s fire shooting across the plane’s windscreen along with acrid smoke.
The ash was from an eruption of Mount Galunggung, 110km southeast of Jakarta.
But there was no sign of the ash on the plane’s radar and when they turned the landing lights on, it gave them an impression of flying through clouds.
Moody turned the plane around and headed back to Jakarta, calculating he could glide for 25 minutes before it hit the ground.
He then decided to descend the plane as Greaves’ oxygen mask broke apart. But at 20,000 feet Greaves managed to fix it.
Then at 12,000 feet he managed to get the engines restarted and the plane managed to limp back to Jakarta.
Moody pictured with his twin-engine Navajo aircraft, at Southampton AirportNewsteam
AlamyMoody calmly told passengers of BA flight 009 there was a ‘small problem’[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
