Popping Sound In Shoulder When Throwing

Should stricken plane even have taken off? Safety fears raised night before BA jet's engine exploded mid-air. British Airways plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

• Popping Sound In Shoulder When Throwing

All 75 passengers were evacuated safely and accounted for. Passenger has described moment flames were seen coming from the engine.

Eyewitnesses have described hearing 'a blowout' and seeing engine on fire. Pictures from inside aircraft show inspection cover loose on port engine. Aviation experts say 'damage is consistent with a bird strike' By and Published: 09:17 GMT, 24 May 2013 Updated: 10:57 GMT, 25 May 2013.

Popping Sound In Shoulder When Throwing

Leaving a trail of smoke in the skies above London, a stricken jet is just seconds from a potential disaster as it descends for an emergency landing with one engine damaged and the other on fire. Shocked passengers yesterday described watching as the British Airways jet’s port-side engine covering ripped off on take-off from Heathrow, exposing its inner workings. Just minutes later the plane’s starboard engine exploded into flames, leaving a trail of black smoke. The Daily Mail can reveal that passengers had reported vibrations and whistling in the cabin – over the wing area where the engines are located – during the plane’s previous flight on Thursday night. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS.

And critics have demanded why the stricken plane was allowed to fly back to base, over millions of homes in Western Europe’s most densely populated city on one of the busiest flight paths in the world. Alternative routes over countryside to airports such as Gatwick, Farnborough or Marston in Kent were possible. British Airways confirmed that air accident investigators were looking at technical faults involving both engines. The most likely theory at the centre of the investigation is that maintenance crews simply failed to properly lock the metal cowls which protect the engines before take-off.

If engines are not properly encased by locking the metal cowls, debris can enter the engines. This can cause fires, experts said. Share All 75 passengers and five crew were evacuated via the emergency chutes from BA762 to Oslo yesterday, with ambulance crews treating three people for minor injuries. Passengers on the crippled 150-seat jet told how the cabin ‘glowed orange’ after the Airbus A319’s right engine caught fire.

The drama happened as the flight returned to Heathrow – about 15 minutes after air traffic control had alerted the pilot at take-off to smoke coming from the plane and debris on the runway, possibly from one or both engines. Passengers said the casing of the left engine started to break away from the plane during take-off. The starboard engine appears charred as the plane sits on the runway after making the emergency landing, last week Jon Chaplin, a company director, said: ‘As the plane started to gather speed on the runway for take-off, the engine casing came loose and started flapping and at the point of take-off it snapped off with a loud bang. ‘On the descent back into Heathrow the right engine burst into flames, creating an orange glow visible throughout the cabin.

‘People were relatively calm until the engine blew, and then they started to panic.’ Another passenger, David Gallagher, tweeted a picture of the loose left engine cowling. He said: ‘About eight or nine minutes into the flight there was a loud popping sound, not an explosion but definitely not usual sounds. ‘The captain came on very calmly, said he was aware of the situation and that everything was running normally and he was going to run some tests. ‘Then another five minutes after that there was a loud sound, and this time the right engine was clearly on fire. 'I mean, big flames, very visible from the rest of the cabin and lots of black smoke.’. Bird strikes can cause huge problems for planes and airports will use a variety of methods to keep flight paths clear.

Commercial pilot and instructor Ian Hollingworth, spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association, told MailOnline bird strikes can cause 'significant damage' to engines. He said: 'If they have had a bird or a number of birds ingested into the engine then it can cause significant damage to the engine, particularly if the engine is on a high power setting, such as at take-off. 'There's nothing definite until the investigation is completed, quite obviously, but if the plane was to ingest a number of birds which hit the front fans in the engine as it rotates at high speed, and it causes damage there, then what that leads to is an imbalance in the engine. A source said: ‘The noises were reported to the flight deck but the crew did not seem to be too concerned.

The captain even came out to speak to the passengers and reassure them that everything was fine.’ David Learmount, of Flight Global magazine, said engine fire was the most serious incident pilots face but also the one for which they practise the most. He said two-engined planes such as the Airbus A319 were perfectly capable of flying on one engine. BA said the request to return to Heathrow had been made because it was ‘the most suitable’ location to deal with the problems identified.

The airline confirmed both engines suffered damage but said it would be for accident investigators to determine what caused the damage and determine which engine was compromised first. BA said in relation to the jet’s Stavanger flight, it would be ‘inappropriate to discuss the previous technical status of this aircraft’ while it was subject to an Air Accident Investigation Board probe. However BA did not deny the testimony of witnesses on that flight made to the Daily Mail.

The airport has seen 188 cancellations, the vast majority of which were short haul flights The airport was seeing delays of 38 minutes for departures and 23 minutes for arrivals, on average, following the emergency landing Mark Freeman, Heathrow Airport Duty Manager said: 'Incidents like this are extremely rare but the team trains constantly to ensure we are prepared when they occur. 'I’d like to thank the fire and airside team, emergency services and BA for their calm professionalism in assisting passengers and making the aircraft safe. 'We were able to reopen the northern runway within two hours of the incident and we are now focused on returning the airport to normal as quickly as possible.' Captain Mark Searle, chairman of airline pilots’ association Balpa, said: 'This was a professional job done by professional people. As pilots we spend our whole career training to manage incidents such as this in order to avoid an incident becoming a disaster. 'Balpa representatives will be assisting the pilots involved in this incident and providing whatever support they need. And, as always, we will all learn whatever lessons we can.'

The plane with emergency services surrounding it after it landed at Heathrow this morning An engine fire is the most serious incident air pilots face but also the one for which they practice the most. Today's successful landing of the stricken British Airways plane was another example of just how well cockpit crews deal with such events, said David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight Global publication.

He added that air accident investigators will have 'a pretty shrewd idea' almost straightaway about what happened. If the plane ran into a large bird or a flock of birds, as has been speculated, then the evidence would be obvious, Mr Learmount said.

He went on: 'The BA pilots today would have got some kind of mechanical damage which led to some kind of fire. 'This is the most serious event you can have, but engine failure that leads to a fire is the emergency for which crews practice more than any other event. 'If you don't deal with events like this quickly and effectively then it is disastrous. Thankfully, in nearly every case pilots take appropriate action.' In such incidents, pilots go through an engine shutdown drill, with a two-engined plane such as the Airbus A319 involved in today's incident perfectly capable of flying on one engine. The crew cut off the fuel to the stricken engine and if the fire does not go out they push buttons or pull handles to activate the fire extinguisher system which is in the engine itself. Mr Learmount said: 'Crews get retrained twice a year.

One thing that happens in every single simulation exercise is engine fire incident.' He said the simulation exercise would often involve an engine fire at the two most critical times - at take-off or landing. Heathrow and other airports employ bird-scaring tactics but Mr Learmount said that airports are powerless to cope with, say, a flock of geese which may decide to fly over an airport. He went on: 'If planes fly into a flock of birds or a large one such as an adult Canada goose, then engine blades can break up and get ingested into the engine.'