The commander of an aircraft damaged in a collision with a heron after take-off from Shannon Airport was not advised about densely-populated areas when making his emergency landing, a British Department of Transport report states.
British air-traffic regulations are to be tightened as a result of last October's emergency flight from Shannon to Heathrow Airport after one of the DC-10 aircraft's three engines was destroyed. The flight had originated in Stockholm and stopped for refuelling at Shannon before take-off for Puerto Rico.
Following a "loud bang and bright flash from the left side of the aircraft", the result of a collision with a grey heron, the pilot declined to make an emergency landing at Shannon because of turbulent weather conditions. He diverted to Heathrow Airport, flying over densely-populated areas en route.
The report from the department's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), released yesterday, states that following the engine fire, the five-member crew declared an emergency with Shannon Approach Control. They later jettisoned their fuel and requested from Shannon Control an "airfield in England with a 10,000-foot runway and decent weather".
When handed over to the London Area and Terminal Control Centre, the crew was offered the possibility of landing at Brize Norton, an RAF airfield 50 miles closer than London Heathrow. However this suggestion was not made in the context of avoiding densely populated areas, and controllers failed to advise the crew of the presence of built-up areas, the investigators noted.
The commander decided to continue and landed safely at Heathrow, although the DC-10's required landing distance was "considerably less than 10,000 feet . . . in requesting such criteria he reduced considerably the number of possible airports available".