Confusion about left and right triggered dramatic emergency landing

The incident took place on June 28 and involved a British Airways aircraft heading for Vancouver in Canada. According to AAIB, there were 334 passengers and 13 crew members aboard the Boeing 777 aircraft when the error happened.

During the start, the second pilot inadvertently pushed a handle to the left instead of the right, reducing the progress just as the captain signal that the aircraft should ease.

The error led to the start to be interrupted, and shortly afterwards a fire broke out in the right landing sack.

However, British Airways wants to determine that the pilots responded quickly and correctly:

« Security is always our highest priority and our pilots brought the plane to a safe stop, » a spokesman for the company said.

According to the report, the aircraft stopped at a good distance from the end of the runway, but the fire department in Gatwick had to be called to extinguish the fire.

The incident caused the runway to be closed for 50 minutes and a total of 23 flights were canceled.

No persons were injured, but the incident has aroused attention.

The second pilot, which has over 6,100 hours of flying experience, « expressed surprise » over the error and « could not give an explanation for it, » the report reads.

AAIB is now continuing to investigate the incident more closely in order to improve the security procedures and prevent similar errors in the future.