The village of Kegworth is marking the 25th anniversary of a fatal air disaster with which its name will always be associated.
On 8th January 1989, a British Midland flight from Heathrow to Belfast crashed into an embankment on the M1 motorway after attempting an emergency landing.
Of the 126 people on board, 47 died and a further 74 were injured.
The Boeing 747 experienced problems soon after taking off from Heathrow Airport. Flight 092 was scheduled to travel from Heathrow to Belfast but was diverted to East Midlands Airport after the pilot reported an emergency situation in one of the engines.
A loud bang from one of the engines sent a ripple of panic through the aircraft, especially as some passengers could see sparks flying from the jet.
Confusion about which of the engines had dropped out led to Captain Kevin Hunt and his co-pilot David McClelland shutting down the only working engine, leaving the plane gliding.
Its tail bounced off the ground about a quarter of a mile from the beginning of East Midlands Airport runway, before it crashed into an embankment on the M1 motorway.
In an astonishing stroke of luck, no vehicles were travelling on that section of the motorway when the plane came down.
The plane was only 20 seconds from the runway but, after narrowly missing the village of Kegworth, the 12-week-old Boeing 737-400 crashed on to the M1.
The fuselage broke into three sections on impact, immediately killing more than 30 of the people on board, the cockpit separating from the main body and the tail folding back.
Most of the deaths occurred at the front of the plane, but 79 people, including the two pilots, survived.
AA patrolmen arriving in the scene spoke at the time of "complete devastation with seats and bodies piled up everywhere".
Firefighters who had been alerted to the mechanical problems were waiting for the flight to land at East Midlands Airport.
When they saw the cloud of smoke, they fought through trees and bushes at the edge of the runway to reach the wreckage.
At Derbyshire Royal Infirmary a major accident was put into operation. A medical flying squad of 16 doctors and nurses travelled to the scene to treat survivors.
Surgeons carried out more than 80 operations during the first 36 hours after the crash.
Having heard about the Kegworth air disaster from a colleague, Professor Wallace rushed to the aid of the people involved and became immersed in a rescue effort in which he oversaw the care of four patients.
Even after his efforts on January 8, 1989, however, Professor Wallace's involvement with the disaster continued.
He started a task force which painstakingly analysed the disaster and revolutionised the safety of air travel.
"I remember the day after the accident, I was chatting to one of my colleagues and we both came to the conclusion that this was an unusual accident," he said.
"We set up a research project which looked at the cause of death in those that died and how the injuries had occurred in those that survived.
"We felt there was an opportunity to look at the safety in a crashed aircraft and how things might be improved – there were lessons that we learned from Kegworth."
The project, called Nottingham Leicester Derby Belfast (NLDB), eventually involved 30 people and produced several major recommendations which were adopted to improve safety.
"A lot of people are now very grateful for them [the changes the research made] – we learned, for instance, that the floors of the airplane at that time were not sufficiently strong because seats were ripped off the floor and a lot of the people at the front of the plane were concertinaed together and effectively crushed to death."
The task group also researched the brace position – which was then adopted as a result.
Professor Fraser said: "We worked on identifying the best brace position and how you should position yourself to reduce to the minimum the issues you get on an impact.
"We believe it has had benefits and there has been a couple of crashes where people did adopt the position and were uninjured. Certainly you reflect on it and think we did that research and we think it has benefited the industry and passengers and we are very proud.
The horror of the event is something that many people won't forget and Professor Fraser, who has worked in Nottingham since 1985 after coming from Manchester, remembers the aftermath clearly.
He said: "I was working in my office at QMC doing some research. My fellow came into my office and said a friend had told him a plane had crashed.
"We went down to the A and E department to see what we could do to help. Within ten minutes, the first casualties appeared and we had severely injured bodies come into Queen's to resuscitate."
The professor of orthopaedic and accident surgery at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust added: "It did feel different. We were aware it was a serious accident from the severity of the first of the casualties – and as more were delivered, it became clear that this had been pretty awful and that people had been killed and seriously hurt.
"Everybody who was available came to help and we allocated about two or three doctors and nurses to each of the badly injured plane occupants. One of the patients who I looked after had a bad head injury and his skull was missing at the back – others had very severe fractures, abdominal injuries and chest injuries.
"People were in remarkably good control. It's very much a situation where, when things become difficult, you focus on providing the best service you can in difficult circumstances. I think we coped admirably well."
Wednesday 08 January 2014
http://www.itv.com/news/2014-01-08/village-marks-25th-anniversary-of-kegworth-air-disaster/
http://www.nottinghampost.com/day-disaster-struck-passenger-plane-fell-skies-M1/story-20413253-detail/story.html
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