777 crash

The Boeing 777 is my favorite commercial airplane.

This past Thursday (January 17), a Boeing 777 crashed while landing at Heathrow airport. This was the first 777 crash in the plane's 13 year history, and was a moment I've been dreading for a long time. Miraculously, no one was killed.

Based on preliminary reports, it seems like both of the engines failed to respond to the autopilot's (and then the pilot's) request for more power right as the plane was about to land. So in other words, literally right near the very last minute of the flight, the pilot asked for a boost of power as the plane was coming down and got nothing. And as a result, the plane landed hard on the grass in front of the runway. And if it had landed any sooner, it would have hit a highway.

In a sense, the "crash" was one of the most innocuous types of crashes you can have- but potentially caused by one of the most troubling events you can confront (loss of power to both engines).

It will be interesting to see how this develops and if there are any serious design issues uncovered with the 777 in the process.

The plane's flight crew deserves credit for getting the plane down safely, and the cabin crew deserves credit for getting everyone off the plane safely once it was down.

Here's some video from the BBC.