40 years on Manchester Airport disaster helps aviation safety revolution

On a sunny morning of August 22, 1985, A British Airtours Boeing 737-200 stood on the tarmac at Manchester Airport ready to depart for Corfu, Greece.

The aircraft had on board 131 passengers and 6 flight crew, ATC gave clearance for the captain to taxi to the runway to take off at around 6am, as the aircraft accelerated down the runway when a bang was heard and the captain aborted the take off.

A combuster can in one of the engines exploded puncturing a wing fuel tank which then ignited, Captain Peter Terrington and first officer Brian Love called an immediate evacuation, the fire was taking hold of the stricken plane and thick toxic smoke was coming through the cabin.

People started to panic and wanted to get off it as soon as they could and how they could, it was utter chaos and this tragically meant 53 passengers died including 2 flight crew and many were injured during the incident, fortunately 82 survived.

Even with the understandable scramble to get off the aircraft having one of the exit door being jammed didn’t help things, with the other exit doors way too close to where the fire was it didn’t help things, or the brave flight crew who tried hard to restore some order.

Firefighters arrived super quick but the fire had already taken hold and wasn’t able to save the 55 passengers who died.

As a result of this tragedy sweeping changes to all aircraft were made including improved engine designs, fire-resistant materials, and clearer evacuation protocols ensuring such a tragedy would hopefully never happen again.

A Memorial at Manchester Airport commemorates the 53 passengers and 2 flight crew who tragically died