Published: Friday, 25th January, 2008 12:30
Miracle crash raises Heathrow safety fears
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THE Government should carry out a thorough risk assessment of the proposed expansion of Heathrow in the light of the recent near disaster of the Boeing 777.
Whatever the cause of the crash landing, it is patently obvious that the circumstance that led to the failure, had it occurred even 30 seconds earlier, would have resulted in a much more tragic outcome.
This aircraft averted a massive disaster because it made it to the grassland before the runway. In the 30 seconds earlier scenario, there would have been no grassland only the densely populated built up area of west London. I accept that this incident is very rare and that we probably have to go back to 1972 in Heathrow’s history for a similar occurrence. In that particular incident a Trident came down in an unpopulated area near the reservoir in Staines and 118 people on board lost their lives. In today’s environment we are much more densely populated and with 440,000 air traffic movements (ATMs) a year now, as opposed to only 80,000 in 1972. With the third runway, ATMs could exceed 670,000 a year, which would obviously increase the chance of disaster and possibly by 2020 the density of the population around London would have increased exponentially.
I implore the powers that be to be more constructive on the approach to the industry’s need to expand and look at the whole picture – the London airport umbrella has at present six runways between Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton. Just how is the survival of Britain’s air travel industry so crucial to the additional expansion of Heathrow, which in itself actually threatens the safety of our capital city?
Investment in a new high speed rail network linking the existing airports would allow for a safer and better overall strategic plan of the national air travel network, adding capacity to under-utilised sites, whilst facilitating the movement of passengers efficiently between sites.
Britain is in desperate need of a more holistic approach to the policies influencing transport, it is for the Government to look at the whole picture rather than be “led by the hand” by just one corporate player in the transport industry.
Michael J Nye,
Willow Close,
Colnbrook
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