British Airways plane caught fire at Gatwick after pilot confusion

A plane aborted take-off on a Gatwick runway after its co-pilot muddled up his left and right hands, investigators have found.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the error resulted in the aircraft’s brakes catching fire.

The 28 June incident – involving a British Airways flight to Vancouver, Canada – led to a 50-minute runway closure and 23 cancelled departures at the West Sussex airport.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “Safety is always our highest priority and our pilots brought the aircraft to a safe stop.”

Gatwick Airport has been contacted for comment.

A 13-person crew and 334 passengers were on board during the incident, according to the AAIB report.

Investigators said the co-pilot “unintentionally” moved a lever to his left when he was supposed to move a lever to his right instead.

This reduced the Boeing 777 aircraft’s thrust at a time when the aircraft’s commander called for the plane to start pulling up, they said.

According to the investigation’s findings, the co-pilot “momentarily” sped up again before abandoning take-off.

The plane “stopped some distance before the end of the runway” but airport firefighting crews were called to put out a fire on the right-hand landing gear.

There were no reported injuries.

The AAIB said British Airways analysis of the event showed the morning was otherwise “unremarkable” and there were no obvious distractions or workload problems prior to the fire.

The co-pilot, who had over 6,100 hours of flying experience, “expressed surprise” over the mistake and “could not identify a reason for it”, according to the report.

He last flew two weeks before the incident.

British Airways had issued a safety notice reminding pilots to “pause before execution and cognitively consider what the required action is” four days before the incident, the AAIB said.

The agency added that the airline had “included ‘mis-selections’ in a new ‘safety topic’ section of its pre-flight briefing material for crew” and was promoting focus during regular simulator training for pilots.