The Kegworth air disaster and proposed aviation safety reforms

Air Safety Measures-Q1

The air disaster at Kegworth, UK, occurred on January 8, 1989, at Leicestershire, close to Kegworth. What happened was that the British Midlands Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, owned by Midland, crashed on to the MI Motorway, close to 'Kegworth'. There were 118 passengers aboard the flight, and 47 people died on the very spot of the crash, and 18 people died later at various hospitals. The eight crewmembers miraculously survived, and of the survivors, that numbered 79, about 5 people suffered minor injuries, while 74 persons were seriously injured, and fortunately, nobody who was on the motorway was hurt or even injured, and no vehicles were damaged. What happened was this: after the flight had taken off from Heathrow Airport, the plane was ascending to 28,000 feet when one engine of the plane suffered a 'turbine blade detachment', and the crew members mistakenly identified the engine number two as having suffered the damages, and not engine number one, and when the flight was diverted to East Midlands, it was assumed, quite naturally, that the it would be able to fly on the single undamaged engine until safety. However, since engine number two, which was the properly functioning engine was shut down, disaster struck, and the flight crashed. The subsequent evaluation of the disaster and the injuries sustained by the passengers led to an official compilation of 31 additional safety measures for aircrafts and passenger safety. (Kegworth Air Disaster)

Mr. Noel Crymble, a machinery trader and one of the survivors of the crash, was an avid campaigner for the reforms, and it was he who was in fact responsible for the implementation of the new safety measures. One of the improvements was that there would be a rear view cockpit camera, and this would help the pilots enormously. One interesting fact that came to light after the crash was that when some passengers suffered appalling injuries, some did not even suffer a small scrape, and when the reason for this phenomenon was analyzed, it was found that it was those passengers who had adapted the recommended 'brace' position that had survived intact, while the others were injured. Professor Angus Wallace of the Queen's medical Center has stated that when the seats are facing backwards, then the impact of the crash would be drastically reduced. Though several airlines have considered the proposal, it has been rejected by many, and not only due to the high costs that would be incurred by undertaking such a measure. The main reason for the rejection of the idea is that, according to the Chairman of British Midland Airways, Sir. Michael Bishop is that most passengers do not prefer to fly backwards; they are actually more frightened of flying backwards than of flying forwards, even though it has been explained to them that it is infinitely safer to fly backwards rather than the opposite. (UK Kegworth, ten years on)