Johnny Rocket

An interesting report and of course for those that have the NatGeo channel the subject of an excellent documentary on Aircrash Investigation. Thankfully BD do not feature again in the series!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/2506665.stm

modularmayhem

I knew someone who died in this crash... although i was very young at the time i still remember that image of all those people waiting at BFS for the coffins to arrive after the accident.

On a different note, for some reason i thought that airlines stopped using the flight number after a fatal accident. I see BD092 still operates today. Perhaps it was just my imagination though and this doesnt happen

Tiger_lily

I think that some airlines do retire flight numbers, but others don't.

I only live 4 miles from the crash site and there's a been lots in the local paper this week, from people who helped in the rescue and their memories.

lhr baby

Hard to believe that was 20 years ago. I remember it happening as clear as yesterday as I was travelling down the M1 that night passing Nottingham only half an hour before. I'd also forgotten it was a 737. Somehow always sticks in my mind even more so than Lockerbie a few weeks before. Still a pretty good safety rate though and long may it continue.

BHDBOY

I think changing flight numbers after an accident is more of a American thing, certainly BA38 (The 777 that came home with a thud about a year ago) is still BA38 today. Perhaps it is the tendency of US news channels to refer to accidents by their flight numbers e.g. They might refer to 'Lockerbie' as 'Flight 103.' Most adults in the UK would remember 'Kegworth' with a little prompting but due to the nature of the reporting at the time, BD92 is just another flight number.

TEX277

I remember the night really well even though I was just 13 at the time.

We had been to visit my brother in Portsmouth and, on our journey home, we managed to persuade Dad to stop off for a meal in a Little Chef along the way. When we recommenced our journey home I also talked him into getting off of the M1 at J24 (rather than J23 as usual) so that we could see the planes landing.

However, when we got to J23 the police had shut the road. We tuned in the radio to hear them reporting that a DC9 had come down.

The following day I recall our tutor asking whether anyone had seen the aircraft before the accident (the village was right under the flightpath and a few kids at the school even lived in Kegworth itself). Several had.

A good friend's father (now deceased) attended the incident as a member of the Fire Brigade. I spent a lot of time in their house, we all shared an interest in aviation and I got on particularly well with the father but I never remember him talking to us about that night.

dunk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_712

BA712 still operates to ZRH, but of course doesn't continue to SYD.

Mofomat

Although pretty much everything you've said I agree with, I suspect BA38 would no longer exist as a flight number if the aircraft hadn't have made the airport boundary and there was a catastrophic accident.

And when BD92 crashed there was no such thing as 24 hour news channels and the world was a very different place, and it wouldn't have received the almost morbid attention from journalists as it would do today. Therefore I think had it have happened more recently people may have been more aware of the flight number and it would indeed have been retired.

This last point is supported by the fact that you yourself cannot remember the flight number of a serious and fatal accident (BD92), yet you can remember the flight number of an accident where nobody died (BA38). This is because of the coverage I believe.

DYKWIA

Am I correct in thinking that this was the last fatal commercial crash in the UK?

If so, then 20 years is pretty good going.

Thinking about it though, I seem to recall a small commercial plane (8 seater or something) crashing on a flight to Aberdeen (maybe!) a few years back.

Cheers,
Rick

Oxon Flyer

In fact, it is because this incident is universally referred to as 'Kegworth'.

antichef

remember it well. i lost a couple of colleagues and had a few more seriously inured that night. recall having very serious conversation about "life, the universe and everything" with colleage on the thursday before which we were to continue after the week end with one of the girls who died. she went back to england to make wedding plans with fiance that week end, and i was the older married work colleague who was regularly called upon for advice and guidance!!

funny old world, as i lost a good friend on the Herald of Free Enterprise too (Zeebrugge Mar 87). Lost a bit of faith in public transport about that time too...

OttoMH

There was a Knight Air Flight from ABZ to LBA on 24 May 1995? I only know that because I was reading about LBA a few months ago.. Also, there was at least one helicopter accidens to offshore installations in the last year too - one offshore from Blackpool? Not sure about the other.. but I don't know what you would consider "commercial flights."

I am too young to remember the BD crash from the time but I always think about it when driving up & down the M1. It was very interesting to see the BBC news clip from the time... what a shame.

raikje

Maybe thinking of the Cessna that crashed just after takeoff from GLA - it was carrying Airtours crew on a transfer to ABZ. That was in 1999, I think.

Mofomat

It was flying FROM LBA. Crashed a few minutes after take-off.

Mofomat

There have been cargo flights crash (a 747 out of Stansted, either Korean or Asiana), and also private jet crashes (one which was carrying David Coulthard and last year one from Biggin Hill).