Response to a plane crash - UK

[ansela_jonla]

Scenario: A plane crashes while on approach to East Midlands Airport in the UK. The plane was meant to be a long haul transatlantic flight from Heathrow, but it declared an emergency and was directed to East Midlands (its runway is the same length as Robin Hood Sheffield/Doncaster Airport's, which boasts it can land an Antonov-225, which is much

Comments

[jayb111]

I don't know the answers to your specific questions, but have you tried Googling "major incident" or "emergency planning"?

[anonymous]

If you Google Kegworth you'll most likely get details of a real crash (Kegworth is very near East Midlands). You may want to choose a different airport afterwards of course. That plane came down on the M1 of course.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kegworth+air+crash&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=okzMUtfJB4rH7Aalg4CQCg

[smtfhw]

And that post above was me... I failed to log in though. Sorry! The 737 that crashed was attempting to make an emergency landing at East Midlands, missed and ended up on the nearyby motorway. 47 people died.

[sollersuk]

Seconding this.. As soon as I saw "East Midlands" I thought "Kegworth" -using that area could be rather insensitive

[elfbert]

Especially as it's 25 years today since the disaster.

There is an article about the survivors on the BBC at the moment. You may wish to read it, OP, but some people might find it quite harrowing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-25548016

[thekumquat]

1. Googling "how long" fuel dump emergency found this answer: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061213093212AAhuTG8 whch suggests over 20 minutes

[nineveh_uk]

I would imagine that unless they have specialist kit/expertise that is needed, the airport fire engines might not go to an off-site disaster, as if other flights need to land they would be needed for service at the airport.

It seems fairly usual for local people/people who are present at major incidents to give assistance. There was a good deal of assistance from residents after the Lockerbie disaster (though of course there was a lot of impact on the ground there so people were engaged anyway), but looking at major incidents that I've checked at random (Grayrigg derailment, recent Glasgow helicopter crash), it looks like assistant isn't unusual when you have an accident that happens outside a major site such as a station/airport, and where there aren't dedicated facilities already.

[elfbert]

I'm not certain, but if the plane crashed 8 miles away from the runway, then it would have (should have) been on what's called 'long final approach' - meaning it was lined up with the runway. (Of course, OP might have it flying around... but that would be very unusual, as obviously no holding pattern would put aircraft over the final approach.)

Long final is anything 8 Nautical Miles (over 9 miles) out from the runway, down to about 4nm, when it becomes final, then short final... anyway, digressing! The point is, I can't imagine any airport continuing to take landing flights if something has crashed on final approach - there could be explosions, smoke, not to mention the fear factor for any pilots/passengers seeing a crashed plane below!!

Anyway, very long way of saying that I think the airport fire crews would be free to attend, if they were needed, given they have all the damping down foam on board, which a regular fire engine wouldn't have.

Unless that doesn't suit your plot, OP, in which case ignore me ;)

[ansela_jonla]

Where I've put the crash site in this scenario is the fields literally right outside my house. There are planes flying over day and night Flipping 5am DHL flights..., and I'm on the straight line path from a hospital with a landing pad as well (the air ambulance for the region being based at East Midlands), so I'm used to seeing that go over at a fairly low level. I was just wondering if it would be plausible for the airport fire crews to attend at this distance, even though they'd likely have to go the long way round.

How big are airport fire trucks compared to regular ones, because the two canal bridges on the most direct routes from EMA to the crash site are just about wide enough to take a regular one.

[scribefigaro]

1) A quick google search tells me that a Boeing 747 would have about 36,000 gallons of fuel on board at take off, for a transatlantic flight, and I'm guessing that other planes capable of making the same flights would need about that amount.

It would surely depend on the type of aircraft and cargo, but if you're talking about a large airliner a few tens of thousands of gallons is pretty reasonable. A B747-400 would probably carry something like 70% of its maximum fuel capacity for a typical LHR-JFK run. A quick calculation for a 7.5 hour flight gives me 34,000 lbs for taxi to climb, 188,000 lbs for cruise and landing, and a 30,000 lbs reserve. That's about 252,000 lbs or 37,500 gal.

How quickly would he be able to dump enough of this fuel to make a safe landing at East Midlands?Only airliners that are certified to take off at weights greater than they can land are equipped with fuel dumping systems. The B747-400 has one, as do most heavy aircraft of that era, but they're less common in later aircraft as it becomes more practical

[scribefigaro]

Airport fire brigades will respond to off-airport events but only to a certain distance

I dug up a handful of aviation incident reports for off-airport crashes but none mention which agencies were involved in the emergency response nor when they arrived, so I'm curious about the range of airport fire service as well.

[temaris]

Yes, exactly this. I have family who worked in the aviation industry for many years, and they tell me that if the plane has time to dump the fuel, then it has time to fly in circles until the fuel is low enough to land light

[alextiefling]

Also seconding the ppl suggesting that in the light of Kegworth, crashing a 747 at East Midlands seems the height of insensitivity.

This. I hadn't realised it was the anniversary until I saw that same BBC article today, but my mind had already gone straight to the Kegworth crash when you posted this scenario. Please reconsider.