The Jakarta incident: The story of how a British 747 lost power to all four engines yet managed to survive.

On the 24th of June 1982, a British Airways Boeing 747-200 registration G-BDXH took off from London bound for Auckland, New Zealand. Named the "City of Edinburgh," the three-year-old aircraft was scheduled to make four stops in Bombay, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne before flying on to Auckland.

During a refueling and crew change stop at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) in Kuala Lumpur, a new crew came aboard to fly the aircraft on the Perth leg of the journey. While flying over the Indian Ocean south of the Indonesian island of Jakarta, the crew noticed what looked like St. Elmo's fire (an atmospheric electric field) on the aircraft's windshield. Despite the weather radar showing clear skies, the flight crew turned on the engine de-ice mechanism and passenger seatbelt sign as a precaution.

Back in the 1980s, it was still possible to smoke on planes, so when smoke began to accumulate in the cabin, it was first assumed to be from cigarettes. As the smoke intensified and a sulfur odor appeared, passengers seated next to windows looking out over the engines noticed that they had acquired a bright blue glow.

A few moments later, around 20:42 Jakarta time, the number 4 engine flamed out. The crew immediately shut it down, turned off the fuel supply, and armed the fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later, engine 2 flamed out and was quickly followed by engines 1 and 3, leaving the jumbo jet flying without power. The crew quickly did their math and calculated that given their altitude and a glide ratio of 15:1, they would be able to stay in the air for around 23 minutes and cover a distance of approximately 91 miles.

The Captain quickly declared an emergency to Jakarta Air Traffic Control (ATC), informing them that all four engines were out. The ATC, however, misinterpreted the message believing that flight BA 009 had only lost power to engine 4. A Garuda Indonesia flight in the vicinity heard the message and reported to Jakarta ATC that the BA flight had lost all power. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, ATC could not locate the 747 on their radar screens.

If the crew were to have any chance of gliding the 747 to Jakarta for an emergency landing, they would need to be at an altitude higher than 11,000 feet to clear the mountains on the island's south coast. If they were any lower than 12,000 feet, they decided that they would turn the aircraft out to sea and ditch in the Indian Ocean.

Despite not being at the recommended altitude to try and restart the engines, the crew tried and failed.

It was then that the Captain of the aircraft Eric Moody went on the address system, announcing according to the Daily Mail:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress."

As the plane lost pressure, oxygen masks automatically deployed throughout the cabin. The flight crew had their masks on in the cockpit, but Senior First Officer Roger Greaves's mask had a problem. The tube that delivers oxygen to the mask had become loose, and he could not reconnect it. To remedy the situation, Moody descended quickly down to a height where it was possible to breathe almost normally.

Now approaching the height at which a decision had to be made, the crew tried to restart the engines. Engine number 4 kicked back into life, allowing Moody to use its thrust to maintain altitude. A moment later, engine number 3 started and was soon followed by the number 1 and 2 engines. As the aircraft gained height before making its final approach into Jakarta, engine number 2 started acting up and needed to be shut down.

As the crew descended, approaching Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport (HLP), they could see nothing as the windshield looked as though it had been sandblasted. Having no direct visual contact with the ground, the decision was made to do an instrument-only landing. However, they could make out the runway lights through a small gap in the windshield while the First Officer shouted out how high they should be at each of the airport's distance-measuring equipment points. After Moody managed to land the plane safely, they found taxing impossible due to the glare of the lights on the airfield. Plus, the aircraft's own lights did not appear to be working.

While the crew was still unaware of what had caused them to lose all power and end up with an opaque windshield, the subsequent investigations shed light on the incident. A post-flight investigation showed that the aircraft had flown through a cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung on the island of Java. The weather radar on aircraft is set up to detect moisture, and because the ash cloud was dry, it did not show up.

Because of the abrasive nature of the ash, it effectively sandblasted the windshield and landing lights and clogged the engines. As the ash was ingested into the engines, it melted and adhered to the inside of the power plant. When the engines were shut down, they cooled off, solidifying the ash to the extent that as the aircraft descended, it started to break off and flow through the engines. With air now flowing smoothly through the engines once more, the crew could use a generator and onboard batteries to restart the engines preventing what could have been a horrific accident.

For their bravery, the crew of flight BA009 received various awards, including the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air. The aircraft's engine-less flight was also recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built plane (this record was later broken by Air Canada Flight 143 in 1983 and Air Transat Flight 236 in 2001).

Since BA flight 009 flew through a volcanic ash cloud, the world is much more aware of how damaging a volcanic eruption can be to aviation. You may remember it is now nearly 12 years since the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. The ash cloud released on the 14th of April 2010 was so large that it covered a vast portion of Northern Europe, forcing 20 counties to close their airspace. The closure resulted in the cancelation of nearly 100,000 flights and millions of stranded passengers.

Fortunately, everyone is now well aware of how dangerous volcanic ash is to aircraft and are quick to act to prevent what happened to BA 009 from happening again.

Journalist - Mark is an experienced travel journalist having published work in the industry for more than seven years. His enthusiasm for aviation news and wealth of experience lends itself to some excellent insight, with his work cited in Forbes amongst other publications. Based in Alicante, Spain.