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Aircraft Accident - Birmingham International Airport
At 12:10 on 4/1/02, both fire appliances from b02 Sheldon Fire Station responded as part of a
pre-determined first attendance off 5 pumping appliances and a hydraulic platform to a report of an "Aircraft Accident" at Birmingham International airport.
The term "Aircraft Accident" is used when a plane is known to have crashed.
Due to the close proximity of B2 Sheldon to the end of the main runway at Birmingham Airport (approx 1 mile) as the appliances turned out from the engine house, a large pall of black smoke could be seen in the distance.
Above are scenes on arrival at
incident.
Upon arrival at Birmingham Airport, the fire crews were confronted by the wreckage of a "Challenger" 25 seat Executive Jet that was strewn along approx.700 metres of grassland and taxiway adjacent to the main runway.
 The airport Fire Service had rapidly extinguished the fire involving the main fuselage using their mobile foam monitors. Sadly, the 2 passengers and 3 crew had all perished in the initial crash.
The aircraft had been bound for Bangor, Maine in the USA.
Witnesses reported that the aircraft took off and shortly after rotation, it rolled to the left causing the port wing tip to strike the ground, which initiated the crash.
The crash closed Birmingham International Airport for over 48 hours, causing disruption to Air Traffic across Europe.
After giving varying degrees of assistance to other agencies at the scene, the West Midlands Fire Service closed the incident at 12:23 on 5/1/02. The incident was then left in charge of the Air Accident Investigation Board.
Below is a plan of the Airfield and
where the plane crashed.
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