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Today’s crash landing at Heathrow of a BA Boeing 777 with no loss of life or even serious injury, is little short of amazing. In due course we shall hear what caused the catastrophic power failure at the very last moments before landing, that led to this extraordinary crash landing but in the meantime, we can only marvel at the strength of the plane and the skill of the crew both flight and cabin, in making the landing and evacuating the plane so quickly.

Back in 2000 and 2001, I used to make frequent flights between Heathrow and O’Hare Chicago. At that time, BA used 747 Jumbos on the route, Virgin Atlantic an Airbus of some description and United 777s. I always flew “cattle class” – Economy because frankly, it didn’t bother me because I have always just loved flying, any size plane will do me, just get me up there !

I didn’t book the flights, the company that I was contracted was global so their special travel section dealt with that and I would just get the appropriate tickets provided for the trip and it could be any airline, the deciding factor being my schedule. However, after one trip, I made an effort to influence the choice based upon the aircraft because I was put on a United 777 and I fell in love with the plane and was no doubt influenced by a very kind Check In lady at Heathrow.

I had turned up early for a 7:00 am flight and before most people had checked in so this lady put me in row 17 (I think). The 777 has three cabins and two bulkheads dividing them, the configuration being First and Business up front, Economy behind making up the two rear cabins. The two rows you wanted to get into were something like 17 & 35 which were the ones immediately behind the bulkheads because you got fantastic legroom, probably better than First Class !

Of course, good things like that never last and by October of 2001 when I was going on a holiday to the West Coast, They had put a surcharge on those two rows because everyone had “rumbled” it and there was a fight to get them ! Still, it is a great aircraft and I would never be scared to fly in one again because it looks like, although you wouldn’t want to be in an aircraft crash, it is probably a good plane to be in if you do.