Slideshow of plane crash

Air accident investigators were today preparing to move the wreckage of flight BA038 from Heathrow's southern runway to an airport hangar where the cause of the crash can be probed further.

The Boeing 777 crash-landed 1,00ft short of the tarmac when its engines failed on Thursday afternoon in the final seconds of a flight from Beijing. All 136 passengers and 16 crew escaped without serious injury.

Senior first officer John Coward, who was at the controls, has been praised for averting a disaster by managing to land the craft just inside Heathrow’s fence, clearing neighbouring homes and businesses.

Yesterday he spoke for the first time about how he had feared catastrophe in the moments when he struggled with the controls of the huge jet.

The Boeing 777 was at 600ft, less than 40 seconds from touchdown, when he noticed its speed was dropping below the level he had set. He was forced to push the nose down to gain speed but, in doing so, lost valuable height.

Mr Coward told Sky News: “The adrenaline kicked in when I realised I had to land the plane with absolutely no power at all. There are drills for a power failure at 30,000ft, when you have time to reset and start the engines, but there are no drills for this. As I was approaching the runway, I thought that this was going to be a catastrophic crash.”

The aircraft landed short of the paved runway surface. Mr Coward said: “I expected an almighty great crash but instead it bounced along the ground. I tried my best to keep it straight and stop it spinning off. When eventually it did stop, there was an eerie silence.”

Mr Coward said he had not slept since the crash.

Members of the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) have remained with the jet since the crash-landing, working through the night to determine the cause of the fault.

An initial report released by the AAIB confirmed that all had gone normally with the flight until the aircraft was just two miles from touchdown and at a height of 600ft. The early findings appeared to confirm that the plane had suddenly lost power.

Investigators are now examining the theory the crash may have been caused by a failure in the avionics and electronics systems that control the aircraft’s engines. British Airways is expected to examine the systems of its 43 Boeing 777s, although the Air Accidents Investigation Branch says there is no need to ground the planes.

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