Former BA 777 Captain Peter Burkill Unable To Find Work
Despite Heroic 2008 Landing
Peter Burkill, Captain during
the 777
short landing incident at Heathrow in 2008,
has recently broken his silence on the crash and why he is unable
to find another airline job. Burkill was under orders to
refuse interviews while at BA and has now written a book about the
incident.
Burkill claims that British Airways refused to correct media
reports and rumors that he "froze" in the cockpit during the
unexpected engine rollback and that the First Officer was forced to
land the plane. He maintains that their roles were consistent
with emergency training and contributed to the lack of
casualties.
According to a January 2010 report released by the UK Air
Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), Burkill took action to
extended the flaps and kept the aircraft aloft long enough to clear
an additional 51 meters of ground. The final ILS antenna was
only 40 meters behind the aircraft, meaning the plane would have
impacted it without Burkill's intervention.
"I was forbidden to talk to the media whilst at BA. When I
left BA I had heard that other airlines may not like publicity so I
remained mute to the press," notes Burkill on his personal
blog.
Burkill was employed by BA until accepting a voluntary
redundancy in May 2009. He says rumors at the company made
some crew members afraid to fly with him in the cockpit.
Burkill blames BA for not publicly denouncing the false
allegations.
In another entry, Burkill wrote "Now that I have to accept that
it appears as though I am unemployable as a commercial pilot I have
nothing to lose in publicly stating what has happened with regard
my job search since leaving BA."
Since that time he has not been employed by another airline and
claims to have not gotten a single interview. Redacted
descriptions of emails and conversations with multiple airlines are
recounted by Burkill on his blog. He claims he is being
discriminated against even though he maintains a "No accident/No
incident" statement on his license (because the incident was not
caused by pilot error).
Burkill says that even though his wife has increased her hours
as a medical technician and they are publishing a book, they were
still forced to sell their home to pay their bills. He is now
considering careers outside of aviation, though he still wants to
be in the air.
"I will miss flying, it is in my blood, it’s all I ever
wanted to do," wrote Burkill.