It is the night the Leicestershire village of Kegworth will never forget. People who were in or near the village on the evening of Sunday, January 8, 1989, will tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when the terrible news reached them.
A Boeing 737 attempting to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport plunged into an embankment on the M1 near the village and a short distance away from the airport. Of its 126 passengers and crew, 47 lost their lives, while dozens suffered serious, in some cases life-changing, injuries.
Some villagers came out of their homes when they heard the British Midland aircraft with its engines ‘struggling’ pass low over the village, narrowly missing St Andrew’s Church. The tragedy came just a few weeks after the Lockerbie disaster. Motorists pulled up on the motorway and got out of their vehicles to lend a hand to the frantic rescue effort. Police, fire, and ambulance crews rushed to the scene from stations across the region.
READ MORE Kegworth air disaster stewardess on how she survived crash that killed 47 people
The people of Kegworth were magnificent too. Immediately, they headed to the scene carrying blankets and, according to one person who was there, “anything else they thought might help”. All worked together throughout the night.
Those lost lives and the acts of heroism are remembered in the North West Leicestershire village every year. A poignant commemoration to mark the 30th anniversary took place in 2019 when St Andrew’s Church hosted a service to remember the dead and to, once again, pay tribute to those involved in the heroic rescue effort.
Members of the public gather at St Andrew’s Church, Kegworth, for a service to mark the 30th anniversary of a crash on January 8, 1989, in which 47 people lost their lives when a British Midland jet crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway near East Midlands Airport.
(Image: PA)
Kegworth’s rector Lauretta Wilson told the congregation: “Kegworth has never forgotten that fateful night. That dreadful event shook all the community but out of that a united spirit was forged and everyone here is testament to that.”
She told the 400-strong congregation she had been struck by the force of emotion still felt 30 years after the crash. Some people, she said, had stifled their emotions about what they had seen but the anniversary had given them an opportunity to talk about what they had seen.
In 1989 Lesley Pendleton was the clerk to Kegworth parish council, the Leicestershire county councillor for the area as well as its representative on North West Leicestershire District Council. She told LeicestershireLive in 2019: “Everyone in the village that night can tell you exactly where they were when the plane came down.
“I was driving my daughter back after she was visiting a friend in Breedon. As I was coming off the A453 I saw a plume of smoke rising over the motorway and I thought it must be another car fire. I decided to to stop on the bridge over the motorway to see what was happening.
“When I looked over the side there was a sight I won’t ever forget. The plane was broken up with wreckage [on] the embankment by the motorway and a set of wheels in the central reservation.
Rescue workers sifting through the broken remains of the British Midlands Boeing 737 400 on the M1 motorway embankment where forty-seven were killed when the aircraft crashed on Friday, January 8, 1989 near Kegworth, Leicestershire
(Image: PA)
“But one of the things I remember most clearly is how all the cars had come to a halt. People use the word miracle all the time but I think the fact that no car was hit was a miracle and that none of those cars hit each other adding to the casualties.
“The queue was backing up and it was eerily quiet. Then while I was watching before any of the emergency workers arrived – all of the cars doors opened almost simultaneously as people realised what had happened.”
At the time, one of Lesley’s many civic duties was to co-ordinate the village’s emergency plan – a guide to dealing with a major incident, such as loss of power, severe weather or flooding. She said: “The county council said everywhere needed one and you hoped to goodness you would never have to use it.”
“We needed feeding stations for all the emergency workers and to find places for people to sleep,” Lesley recalled in 2019. “You knew something terrible had happened and that a lot of people had been killed, but you had to click into gear and just get on with things.
“There were teams of people running up from the village with blankets and anything else they thought might help. There were mountain rescue people from the village who were there digging steps down the embankment so the emergency services could get where they needed to be. It was a magnificent response really.
The scene of the Kegworth air crash
(Image: TARK NP)
“It was a long time ago and it’s not generally spoken about now. We keep it close to our chests, but of course we remember every year in reverence those who died and those who were injured.
“We also remember and thank those who had to deal with the accident – the firefighters, the police, the ambulance staff, the nurses who lived in the village and went to help that night and everyone who responded so wonderfully in the face of something so awful.”
After the 2019 service, people gathered in the village hall to share their experiences of the crash. Several of them spoke to LeicestershireLive.
Lifeboat crewmen Des Simmons, 57, and 64-year-old Ken Fowler were among the first on the scene that night and went to the aid of those who were injured. They were on their way back home to Cheshire after attending a boat show in London.
Ken told us: “We were in the minibus and Des said he thought he’d seen a plane on fire. None of us believed him at first, but then it quickly became clear something really bad had happened.
“We were lifeboat crew so we thought we might be able to help. When we got to the plane there were only two policemen there.
“One of them threw a foil blanket at me and said: “Do you know how to use that? Good. Go and do what you can’.
“We didn’t really think about it. We just did what anyone would have done in the circumstances. I think we eventually left at about 4am.”
Prime minister Margaret Thatcher visits the wreckage of the Boeing 737 which crashed into an embankment in the background.
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Cobbler Peter Bullock, 58, also stopped to help. He told us: “I saw some terrible things that I struggle to talk about, but I knew people needed help.
“I was pumped with adrenaline and I remember an ambulance man saying to me: ‘Firstly put that cigarette out because the whole thing might go up and, secondly, stop rushing around you’ll help more people if you calm down’. I wept when I had to leave because there was still so much to do.”
Sheila Sharpe was chairwoman of the trustees of the village’s museum, Kegworth Heritage Centre, when we spoke to her in 2019. Sheila, who was 71 at the time and had lived in Kegworth since 1962, talked us through the file of newspaper cuttings in the museum’s collection.
She said: “Some places are defined by terrible things that have happened there – Aberfan, Lockerbie, Hungerford – and for many people Kegworth is one of them. The cuttings are interesting though. Initially they focus on the crash itself but then there is a shift to how the community began to deal with what had happened.
“It is important to remember, but it is also important to get on with life and not let one horrific thing define a place. We know the village had a lucky escape that night and we know how much worse it could have been.
“People heard the struggling engines of the plane as it was coming in low over the village. Some people went out into the street when they heard it. They saw the plane coming in so low they were sure it was going to hit the church spire.
“I wasn’t there, but they said people started to clap when the pilot cleared the church. They thought the plane was going to make it and then…..”
Later, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which investigates air accidents in the UK, said the disaster was caused by a catastrophic mix of mechanical failure and human error. Its investigators said the British Midland Boeing 737-400 had left Heathrow at 7.52pm, bound for Belfast.
At 8.05pm, 28,000ft up and 20 nautical miles south of East Midlands Airport, a fan blade snapped on the left engine. Two minutes later, the right engine was shut down in error.
At 8.23pm and 49 seconds, there was a sudden loss of power and the jet crashed as it attempted an emergency landing. A minute later it smashed into the motorway embankment.
The AAIB made 31 recommendations, including better crew training and stronger floors and passenger seats. Helen Muir, a professor of aircraft safety at Cranfield University, in Bedfordshire, told LeicestershireLive lessons were learned from Kegworth.
Seats are stronger now and more flame retardant and pilots are trained to work closer with cabin crew. She said: “Planes are safer as a consequence of Kegworth. The UK has pretty much led the world in terms of that.”
A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman said at the time: “The United Kingdom has an excellent aviation safety record.
“The CAA accepted and acted on safety recommendations following the Kegworth accident, including introducing a revised passenger brace position, improved pilot and crew training and changes to cockpit instrumentation.”
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