All Engines Failed! - a true story of a flight caught in volcanic ash

17/04/2010

  Betty Tootell, from London, was 57 when she boarded a BA flight to Australia with her mother on 24 June, 1982. With a few hours left before landing in Perth, smoke began to seep into the 747 jet. The engines had failed, clogged up by volcanic ash from an explosion, leaving all 263 passengers and crew hurtling to their doom. But miraculously, they escaped - and Betty wrote a book recounting the heroism of those ordinary people. She also met and married one of her fellow passengers.

The incredible story of how the plane recovered, and of the passengers who survived and formed the Galunggung Gliding Club was told on the National Geographic Channel in one of ten episodes called 'Air Crash Investigation 4'. Plane crashes and near-disasters from around the globe are investigated in meticulous detail, providing a look into what went wrong, and how they helped change aviation safety.

Betty, now in her 80s, said in her book: "I knew from my aviation background that the air crisis was unique in aviation history and I felt strongly that the technical events should be detailed and recorded, together with the actions of the sixteen flight deck and cabin crew. I also felt that the human interest angle - such as what do passengers think about at a time like that when they are certain they are going to die – provided a very rare survival opportunity to find some answers. And within a very few days of discovering the reasons for our crisis and of reaching home I decided to tackle the task myself."

The crisis was indeed unique. Smoke was filling the plane - but there were no signs of fire. Outside the cockpit window, the pilots could see a bizarre shower of sparks, a thin layer of cloud surrounding the plane and a white glow around the engines. Passengers watched as huge flames erupted from the back of the engines - and then one failed. Then, more than 10 kilometres above the ocean surrounding Indonesia, the second engine failed, followed almost immediately by the last two engines. The plane began a terrifying descent – literally falling from the sky. Suddenly, as quickly as they had shut down, the engines restarted and the plane limped back to the airport.

A steep learning curve

  Betty continued: "From not knowing the name or location of a single passenger or crew member and knowing very little about the flight capabilities of an aircraft, of satellite operation, vulcanology or the hundred and one other aspects of this drama, I was soon on a very steep learning curve to write the book. Very correctly, the airline (British Airways) would not give me the names of any of the crew or passengers as it is against their policy to do so. The search was therefore through snail-mail letters to newspaper columnists and appeals to radio station hosts, and by subsequent word of mouth referrals by passengers who had collected names and addresses from other passengers while we were marooned in Jakarta. Once found, the crew and passengers provided key information to add to my own experiences for the story telling."

Betty managed to trace some 200 of the 247 passengers on the flight and many of them became friends with the very special bonding that comes with shared survival. Little could she have foreseen the future connection with James and Sybil Ferguson, residents of New Zealand, who were seated just in front of her and her mother.

"My three-metre long paper plan of the Boeing 747 aircraft gradually filled with passengers names on numbered seats and was littered with annotations of events, sights, sounds, colours and, where possible, timings. And, of course, what the passengers were thinking during this terrifying time" said Betty.

"Eventually, the hardback edition of my book, All Four Engines Have Failed, was first published in 1985, and during the intervening years, there has been a series of TV documentaries reviving an interest in this unique dramatic event."

The survivors of the flight have met regularly over the last 25 years - pleased to seize an opportunity to celebrate the happy outcome at gatherings in various locations around the world. After Sybil Ferguson died, Betty and James continued their friendship. James had flown as Flight Engineer in Catalina Flying Boats in the Pacific in World War II, and so their mutual interest in aviation helped develop a bond.

Blessed

"Gradually our friendship developed into a deeper relationship that culminated in our marriage in 1993" said Betty. "I thus acquired three mature children, thirteen adult grandchildren and, so far, 18 great-grandchildren – an impressive record for someone who has never had a baby!

"We have certainly been richly blessed by a second chance of happiness in a marriage which has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. James and I have been able to travel extensively together, we have many interests in common, we never run out of things to talk about, and we never fail to communicate. "

 

'All Four Engines Have Failed' is published by Andre Deutsch Ltd

 

ISBN-10: 0233977589

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