Passengers on board the Knock-bound British Airways aircraft forced to make an emergency landing in Manchester spoke yesterday of the panic that gripped them when the aircraft finally came to a halt. A round of applause from the passengers for the crew soon gave way to panic as the captain ordered everyone to evacuate.
A young couple who were returning to Ireland to get married spoke of what they believed would be their last moments together.
Mr David Bailey, formerly of Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, and Ms Judith Padden, from Crossmolina, Co Mayo, were among the 66 passengers who escaped unhurt. Mr Bailey explained how after three hours spent in the air while the pilot burned off fuel, passengers were ordered to put their hands on their heads and assume the crash position.
"I wanted to hold Judith's hand, but we were ordered to keep our hands on our head. I just took one look at her before we hit the floor. I thought that was it and I would never see her again."
Mr Bailey, a construction site supervisor, and Ms Padden, a teacher, are to be married in Crossmolina next Saturday.
The bride-to-be's mother, Martha, who was waiting anxiously for the flight to arrive in Knock, said she knew something was amiss when it failed to arrive at the scheduled time of 7.30 p.m.
"They kept telling us in Knock there was a technical problem, but I had a feeling there was something more serious wrong."
Dr Geraldine Slevin, of Manorhamilton, said fortunately her three children Anisa (3), Adam (2) and Sam (10 months) were not aware of the danger.
"Initially we thought it was just a matter of returning to Manchester and taking off again, but they started talking about burning up fuel and a crash-landing situation.
"After we touched down, there was general applause, but the captain shouted `Go, go, go.' At that stage the stampede began. A firefighter came on board and took Anisa off me. Someone threw Adam to another firefighter and I managed to get down the chute with the baby."
Ms Margaret Jeffrey, from York, who is a member of a UK country and western group, Cool and Country, spoke of befriending a woman on the aircraft and singing songs to pass the time as the tension began to mount and the aircraft went round in circles.
"I sang one of my favourite country songs Okie From Muskogee. I just took my hat and coat off and began to sing," she said.
"The pilot and crew were excellent. They all deserve a medal. When we came to land there were a couple of bumps. Two lads and a lass pulled me on to the wing and shouted `go, go , go'. I can tell you I went. My feet never touched the ground," she said.
Mr John Brennan, from Yorkshire, who was travelling to meet his family in Westport, said: "The cabin crew began lifting up carpets. They were trying to manually drop the wheel, but it didn't work.
"There wasn't much talking, everybody was praying in their own particular way. But nobody was causing a scene or panicking. Then the aircraft tipped over to my side, where there was no wheel. The flames started running along the wing. I thought it was going to engulf us.
"Then the aircraft came to a halt and everybody started applauding. We seemed to forget we had to get off quickly in case it would go up."
The pilot who was hailed as a hero after safely crash-landing his crippled aircraft with 66 passengers on board yesterday modestly played down his achievement. The captain of the British Regional Airlines ATP flight, which was bound for Knock from Manchester when an undercarriage failed, told his bosses it was just part of his job.
The aircraft, with a total of 70 crew and passengers, turned back when it was discovered the undercarriage on the left wing had failed.
The aircraft circled for three hours over the Irish Sea to use up excess fuel before the captain, one of the airline's most experienced pilots, brought it safely down on the tarmac at Manchester with emergency services on full alert.
The airline's commercial director, Mr Mike Bathgate, said: "The captain is a very private individual. He believes it was very much an overall combined effort between him and the other crew and just part of what he has simulated in training many, many times.
"It was the first time he has had to put this into practice in real life, but he has said it is just part of his job.
"It was a textbook example of how to handle the aircraft in the circumstances.
"He actually performed it better in real life than he had achieved in simulations.
"That the passengers were all brought down safely was all down to the perfect landing. He came to a stop to perfection."
The pilot, who has been with the airline for 10 years, was speaking to investigators from the Department of Transport's Air Accident Investigation Branch yesterday to try to discover the cause of the failure.
Mr Bathgate said there had been no similar problems on any of the airline's fleet of 15 ATP aircraft.
Earlier one of the passengers, Mr John Brennan, from Bradford, west Yorkshire, told how the captain had announced over the aircraft address system that they were going to make a crash landing.
"He said this was purely routine," said Mr Brennan. "We had to adopt the brace position and people were getting very, very nervous, although the cabin staff were excellent.
"As we came down, I looked across at the wing and flames were shooting off with the friction from the tarmac. I thought that was it and that the wing was going to come into my lap, but somehow we got down OK."