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| Date: | Tuesday 16 November 1993 |
| Time: | c. 17:18 LT |
| Type: |  McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 |
| Owner/operator: | British Midland |
| Registration: | G-PKBM |
| MSN: | 47648/761 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1974 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 82 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Leeds-Bradford Airport (LBA/EGNM) |
| London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) | |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft had completed a scheduled flight from Leeds Bradford Airport to London Heathrow
Airport. As it approached Stand B4, the left engine was shut down; when it came to a halt on the stand the parking brake was applied. As the auxiliary power unit (APU) was unserviceable, the commander had requested that ground power be available, consequently when he saw the ground engineer approaching the aircraft with the ground power connector he shut down the right engine. The engineer found that there was insufficient cable to reach the aircraft socket and stepped back to release some more. As he was doing so the right engine wound down, the generator came off line and the aircraft was left with internal battery power only. The commander immediately selected Emergency Power to 'ON'.
As the ground engineer again attempted to connect the ground power, he noticed a large amount of
smoke coming from the right engine. He removed the ground power connector, dropped it in its
stowage box; he then went round to the left side of the aircraft and banged on the fuselage to attract the commander's attention. When the commander opened his side window, the engineer told him that he thought there was a fire in the right engine. By this time smoke had drifted forward and was visible from the flight deck; the commander decided to evacuate the aircraft. The Evacuation Procedure checklist was actioned and the commander made the evacuation PA announcement. Both fire extinguisher bottles were discharged into the right engine. At 1719 hrs, the first officer informed
Heathrow Ground that the aircraft had a fire on Stand B4; the controller initiated the appropriate
ground emergency procedures. The first officer confirmed that the Evacuation Procedure had been
completed and, with the flight deck fire extinguisher, went to the cabin to assist the evacuation.
Meanwhile, when the aircraft came to a halt, the cabin staff had disarmed the escape chutes and the
passengers had begun to unfasten their seat belts and collect their belongings. Being, by now, on
battery power only, it was relatively dark in the cabin. When the number one cabin attendant opened
the main passenger door, she heard someone on the ground shout that there was a fire and she saw
some smoke. The first officer entered the cabin at about this time and it was apparent to him that the evacuation was not going ahead. He told the number one cabin attendant that the commander had ordered the evacuation. It occurred to her that this had not come out over the cabin PA loudspeakers and so she made another announcement from the forward PA station while the first officer returned to the flight deck and informed the commander who repeated the evacuation order; this time it came out on the cabin PA system.
As the jetty had started to approach the aircraft, the ground engineer signaled to the operator to stop. He then noticed that the passenger door was open and released the air-stairs; however, shortly
afterwards the front right service door escape chute deployed and so, realising the aircraft was being
evacuated, he restowed the airstairs and went to his office to get help.
The number one cabin attendant tried to re-arm the slide on the forward passenger door. To achieve
this, it was necessary to close the door; although it would not close completely, she managed to arm
the slide but then found that she could not open the door. The first officer, on his return to the cabin,
also tried but his efforts were unsuccessful.
A flight services manager was on board carrying out a routine check on the cabin attendants; she
assisted in the evacuation and also made a PA announcement to back up that made by the number one
cabin attendant.
The number two cabin attendant opened the rear bulkhead door but could not locate the tail cone release handle in the relative darkness of the tail cone area. A cabin attendant who was traveling as a passenger came to her assistance, located the handle and released the tail cone. The escape chute was deployed but, unfortunately, the detached tail cone had come to rest directly in line with the end of the chute. The non-operating cabin staff member exited first to clear it out of the path of escaping passengers.
The time scale in which this occurred was short and the front right service door, the rear door and all
four over wing exits were successfully used for the evacuation which was carried out in an orderly and
timely manner, with only minor injury to six of the passengers being reported. The Emergency
Services attended shortly after the evacuation was completed.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f410e5274a13140004ab/DC-9-32__G-PKBM_04-94.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7071578 (Photo)
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 9 July 1990 | G-PKBM | British Midland | 0 | over Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland | |
min |
| Landing gear issues | ||||||
| 11 March 1993 | G-PKBM | British Midland | 0 | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) | |
min |
| 16 April 1995 | G-PKBM | British Midland | 0 | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) | |
min |
| Collision with Ground support equipment | ||||||
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Jun-2025 13:30 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 26-Jun-2025 13:31 | Justanormalperson | Updated [Accident report, ] |
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