Guardian article here. The article says that the crash was weather-induced, but the Pprune thread here indicates considerable confusion, that an engine may have fallen off, and it was an aborted take-off.
Whatever the cause, the important thing is that everybody lived. Well done those pilots!
Even though I understand the reasons why, it always feels amazing to me that most aviation accidents aren’t fatal. The whole concept of airplanes is so inherently ridiculous that it’s incredible that they don’t murder us every day.
Wow. It seems perhaps an engine failed just at the wrong moment (V1), which normally would still allow for either getting airborne or stopping on the runway, but in this case was followed immediately by a microburst or downdraft that kept the plane on the ground. One engine and then the other was ripped off, and it came to a rest a few hundred feet beyond the runway. It burst into flames 3-4 minutes later, after an apparently successful evacuation, even of injured passengers (well done!). Some are in critical condition, but all still alive at this time. Someone in that thread speculated it probably would have been worse had the plane gotten a little airborne and then crashed.
Maybe we should wait until we know the ultimate cause of the accident before getting too enthusiastic about this?
Well, whatever the cause of the accident, the evacuation was done really well…and to whatever extent the pilots are responsible for that, this praise is justified. Certainly, the service crew must have done a great job.
Looks like I was wrong about some of the details – more likely, the engine failure WAS one of the engines coming off, while the plane was still on the runway, at about the V-1 point.
There’s a video on the PPRuNe thread, it looks like it did get airborne briefly. Wind shear is a possibility. I’m sure the report will give all the answers some time after we’ve forgotten it happened.
Regardless of the cause of the accident, that everyone survived is a good thing.
With a successful evacuation it’s probably more appropriate to congratulate the cabin crew!
That was my thought as well.
Getting passengers safely from point A to point B, even if point B comes sooner than planned, takes more than just pilots. Getting everyone out of a burning airplane requires good folks sitting aft of the cockpit.