After long and easy flight from Capital International Airport, Beijing, China, the airplane started to land in London on the Heathrow airport fully controlled by the instruments. They are guided by equipment, called ILS (Instrument Landing System). It allows exact guidance of the aircraft to the runway. Today's airliners under ordinary situations don't even need the pilot, they are able to control themselves from takeoff to landing. The pilots sit there only to talk to the air traffic control, check the computers and negotiate the diplomatic procedure during flight over different areas. If they want to really pilot and show their mastership, they in fact only have a chance during the landing, which is the most dangerous part of the flight, when they usually switch off the autopilot one minute before touchdown and according to the ILS information and their own experience try to land better than the autopilot could do.

Also the flight of this Boeing type 777-200ER was fully controlled by the instruments until the moment, when about 3.2 kilometers from the airport in the height of about 183 meters the autopilot tried in cooperation with autothrottle to increase the thrust. It did not succeed and reported an error. At that time the airplane was under the first pilot's surveillance who tried to increase the thrust manually using the lever. But the thrust control system did not respond even to the lever, so it was blocked somehow. With the low thrust the pilot managed to land about 300 meters before the runway. It was luckily already behind the perimeter fence. After the touchdown the gear under the right wing ripped off, the gear under the left wing pushed through it and remained in it. This monster then rushed on the ground and ended up at the beginning of the runway, where it was supposed to land. So it was stopped on only 300 meters, while the ordinary landing lenght is about 1500 meters.

The takeoff weight of this Boeing for 301 passengers is about up to 300 tons, about half of that is the weight of the fuel, which does not remain much after so long flight luckily. So although the wings were corrupted and the fuel leaked, there was no fire. The passengers were evacuated using the slides. The news say, that the injuries were caused only by this evacuation. The worst was broken leg. It only shows how safe this airplane is. It is the first airplane in the world, fully designed by the constructors using only computer software. No passenger has never died in it.

Clear graphical illustration of landing can be seen in the BBC news, the investigation is run by the Air Accidents Investigation branch of British Department of Transport. There is the most accurate information there. More information about the Boeing aircrafts can be found directly on the manufacturer's site. An interesting information is, that the largest building in the world is the Boeing's assembly hall, where also this aircraft is produced. Boeing type 777-200ER is a long distance version, ER means Extended Range and it is significant also by the special crew rest space above the first class deck. See the links below.

Boeing 777