I was planning dream wedding when jet exploded & hit M1 – I woke 3 weeks later without leg to find fiancée dead & buried
EXCITED about their impending wedding, a young couple boarded a flight back to their jobs as military personnel working in Belfast.
Aged 24, British Army driver David Ward was travelling with fiancée Judith Pattison, 22, having popped the question the previous summer.
He recalls: “I was serving in Northern Island and that’s where I met Judith, as she also worked in the military.
“I met her in one of the bars and we just got on really well, and we started dating. We got engaged in the summer of ’88, it was a sunny day and yeah, I just asked her.
“Over Christmas in England we went to buy the dress, got the house and booked the wedding, so everything was in place for our new life together.
“The day of the flight me and Judith were flying back to Belfast, and we were just really happy.”
The couple were two of 126 passengers travelling on British Midlands flight 92, which took off from Heathrow 20 minutes after its 7.30pm slot.
Now, a Channel 5 documentary series is revisiting the horrific events that led to it smashing into the M1 motorway, leaving 47 people dead in what became known as the Kegworth air disaster.
It was January 8, 1989, just weeks after Libyan terrorists blew up a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Despite the trepidation of some passengers, David and Judith weren’t worried as they were busy discussing their wedding plans.
Eight minutes into the flight, the seat-belt signs switched off and the cabin crew were busy serving food and drinks.
But just minutes later loud banging was heard on the brand-new Boeing 737-400 “as if someone outside was using a hammer trying to get in”.
The plane began shaking and vibrating so violently that some passengers’ vision became blurred, leaving them unable to see the person next to them.
And soon an “acrid” smell of smoke filled the air as people began yelling and screaming.
David, now 59, said: “The crew started rushing around, taking food and drinks back off us and packing things away and ensuring we had our seatbelts on.”
Passengers heard a loud bang, saw showers of sparks, plumes of smoke and a rhythmic vibration they likened to driving over a road of potholes – all coming from the left-hand side of the plane.
Catastrophic error
In the cockpit Captain Kevin Hunt and flight officer David McLellan knew there was an engine failure but could not see which side it was.
In a catastrophic turn of events, they decided to switch off the right engine instead.
Over the tannoy Captain Hunt tried to reassure passengers, explaining there was an engine failure, and they would be diverting to East Midlands airport, home of the British Midland Fleet.
He said there was a problem with the right engine and that everything would be ok.
Passengers assumed that was a “slip of the tongue” as many were looking at the sparks shooting from the left side of the plane.
As the jet banked 13 aeronautical miles from the runway, it began shuddering again before losing power altogether.
Realising their mistake the pilots tried to restart the right engine, but the plane was too low.
Passengers were told to ‘brace’ as the plane hurtled towards the busy M1 motorway, its engine still ablaze, while terrified drivers saw it descending from the road below.
David recalls: “It sounded like in a movie when you hear a military plane going through the air. I was scared as soon as the captain told us to brace for a crash landing.
“We hadn’t been worried before that, but when we started going down, I was just looking at Judith and holding her hand.”
Horrific smash
The plane hit the ground and then the embankment on the other side of the motorway, its tail snapping off and inverting on to itself.
Heroic drivers had stopped traffic on the motorway using their hazard lights, before racing to the wreckage.
A fire engine smashed into the central reservation before dousing the flames with foam, while 74 ambulances took the injured and dying to four hospitals.
On impact all the over-head compartments bar one flung open, and a barrage of heavy luggage shot out, injuring or killing passengers.
Witnesses who rushed to help recall the crash site being “eerily silent”.
Knocked unconscious when the plane crashed, David was one of the last people rescued.
His next, heartbreaking memories are in the hospital.
David was left with extensive facial injuries, broke almost every bone in his body bar his right arm, and had extreme damage to his lower legs.
He said: “I woke up in hospital and my dad and brother were there. My dad told me that they’d had to take my leg off and they’d buried Judith.
“I was out for about three weeks in an induced coma, and they’d saved me by taking my leg off because gangrene had set in on my right foot.
“When I got taken out of intensive care and into a ward, I asked for a mirror to look at myself, and it just didn’t look like me. My brother Andy had recognised me from the tattoo on my arm.
“When I was getting better, I caught the train up and went to visit the gravestone, up in Hadley. That was quite difficult, seeing it for the first time.”
Judith was one of 47 fatalities, with 39 dying on impact and another eight dying later from their injuries. All the crew members survived.
‘I wish I’d spoken up’
The captain was left with life-changing injuries and both pilots were dismissed from their jobs.
The fire had started when a fan blade snapped off, becoming lodged in the housing of the engine.
Although the pilots admitted making mistakes the inquiry found insignificant training was a significant factor in the cause of the disaster.
Captain Hunt had more than 13,000 hours of experience, but had not flown in a simulator, as one for the 747-400 did not yet exist.
Tech expert Declan Brady was initially meant to catch an earlier flight and found himself on the doomed aircraft at the last minute.
He said: “I was a tech geek and was interested in being on this new plane, see how much more power the engines had, and everything was going well. I noticed the plane had no aisle 13, which was interesting.
“But then I heard a loud bang and saw showers of sparks and a rhythmic vibration.
“When the captain said there was a problem with the right side, I thought ‘oh, he’s just made a mistake, a slip of the tongue.”
I was out for about three weeks in an induced coma, and they’d saved me by taking my leg off because gangrene had set in on my right foot
David Ward
Today, Declan says he wished he’d questioned it.
“It shouldn’t have been assumed that because you’ve flown one of these planes it’s easy enough to fly the next one, because the whole cockpit layout had changed.
“The dials and so on that they would have been used to were now quite different. If any of these links in the change had been missing, then history would have been different.
“If the fan belt hadn’t failed; if the flight crew had realised their error at a point in the flight where the good engine could have been restarted… another 15 metres of altitude to get into East Midlands.
“Something that I’m bothered about is could I have put my hand up and said, ‘listen, I know he said right hand engine but what’s going on here?’. That’s a haunting thing as well.
“I’ve lived through and experience that I can learn from and a lot of us can learn from. I’m a more ‘Carpe Diem’ sort of person than I might’ve been when I got on, so enjoy now, do now, don’t put off.”
Survivor Nick Stevenson said he still flies regularly.
He said: “The first flight I called the airline and explained I’d been in an accident and that I was nervous.
“A stewardess met me on boarding and produced four small bottles of gin on the tray in front of me – and I drank them.
“So, I was a little bit nervous, but I got used to it again.”
David said: “It’s been 35 years now, and you don’t forget, but I was determined to get better and move on forward.”
Terror at 30,000 Feet, the M1 Crash, is on today on Channel 5 at 9pm.
How to stay safe on a flight
Wearing the right clothes:
One of the most important things to wear on a plane are your shoes, and you should avoid taking them off when boarding.
A study by Boeing found that half of plane crashes happen during take-off and landing.
After a crash, fire or broken glass could obstruct the aisle, making it hard to escape barefoot.
Removing sharp objects from pockets:
A Boeing pilot advised passengers to always remove sharp objects from your pockets.
The reason being that you could damage the emergency slide if there is something sharp on you.
Count the seats to the emergency exit:
It is advisable to count the number of seats there are between you and the nearest emergency exit.
This is because in the event of an accident, if visibility is poor, you will be able to guide yourself and others to the exit.
Don’t lace fingers during brace position:
The way you do the brace position could impact your survival as lacing your fingers could badly injure you.
Passengers are supposed to put their head between their knees, with their hands over the top to protect the back of the skull.
The temptation is to lace the fingers while doing this, to keep the hands in place during what would likely be quite a bumpy journey.