Heathrow plane removed from runway

Updated 19.39 Sun Jan 20 2008

Keywords: heathrow, british airways, plane, britain

Engineers have lifted the British Airways plane that crash-landed at Heathrow and moved it off the runway.

Flight BA038 suffered a double engine failure and skidded along the grass short of the runway on Thursday afternoon.

"It will be moved to the eastern hangars at Heathrow and will remain there for the duration of the investigation" - AAIB spokeswoman

All 136 passengers and 16 crew escaped but an investigation has begun to determine the cause of the failure.

An initial report released by the AAIB said all had gone normally with the flight until the aircraft was just two miles from touchdown and at a height of 600ft.

Members of the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) have remained with the wreckage since the crash-landing, working through the night to determine the cause of the fault.

The early findings appeared to corroborate various claims the plane had suddenly lost power.

The AAIB's preliminary report into the incident, which left 18 of the 136 passengers needing treatment including one with a broken leg, is due out within 30 days.

It said its investigation was now focused on "more detailed analysis of the flight recorder information, collecting further recorded information from various system modules and examining the range of aircraft systems that could influence engine operation".