British Airways pilot caused plane to catch fire after mixing up left and right

A pilot managed to cause a fire after on a British Airways plane after mixing up his left and right.

The Boeing 777 jet was about to take off from Gatwick Airport when the co-pilot accidently pulled the left instead of the right-hand lever,reducing the aircraft’s thrust.

This caused the brakes to catch fire,forcing the pilots to perform a ‘high-speed emergency stop’ on the runway when the plane was travelling at almost 190mph.

The error,on June 28 last year,prompted authorities to close the airport temporarily and cancel,delay and divert dozens of flights.

The incident was published in a Air Accident Investigation Branch report on Thursday.

It said the pilot – who had more than 6,000 hours of flying time – had returned from a two week break,feeling ‘well-rested’ and ‘fine’.

He was not able to ‘identify a reason’ why he mixed his hands up.

None of the 334 passengers or 13 crew onboard the plane,which was heading to Vancouver in Canada,were injured.

The British Airways plane caught fire in June last year

The fire,which broke out on the right-side main wheel brakes,was extinguished by fire crews.

A video taken from inside the plane shows the of the crews making their way to the plane as it waits on the runway.

According to the report,the pilot was supposed to ‘move his left hand during the takeoff roll,while preparing to pull back on the control column with his right hand’.

‘However,he unintentionally pulled his left hand back instead,’ it said. 

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

‘There was no obvious reason for him being primed to do that… and he could not identify a reason for it on the day,’ it added.

The report added: ‘The co-pilot reported being well-rested and feeling fine. He expressed surprise in himself over the inadvertent thrust reduction and could not identify a reason for it.

Fire crews at the scene (Picture: @Justene)

‘The airport rescue and firefighting service attended the aircraft and extinguished a fire from hot brakes on the right main landing gear.’

After the incident,a spokesperson from Gatwick Airport said the plane had been abandoned ‘due to the departing aircraft having hot brakes’. 

They added: ‘Safety is our top priority and the dedicated airport fire service swiftly attended to support the aircraft.

‘A number of flights were diverted. The runway is now open and operating as normal.’ 

A British Airways spokesperson,meanwhile,said at the time: ‘Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue.

‘Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.’