British Airways plane catches fire as pilot confuses left and right during Gatwick take-off

A plane caught fire and was forced to after a pilot confused his left and right on the runway.

The Boeing 777 was about to take-off from to Vancouver, , but the co-pilot "unintentionally" moved the wrong hand for the wrong control. The shocking pilot error led to a 50-minute runway closure and 23 flight cancellations at the major UK airport. An investigation into the June 28, 2024, incident found that the surprise mistake led to the aircraft's brakes catching , according to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Investigators revealed the co-pilot moved a lever to his left when he was meant to move it to his right. This action reduced the thrust at a moment when it was supposed to start pulling up off the runway.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

The report added: "There was no obvious reason for him being primed to do that... and he could not identify a reason for it on the day." This co-pilot "momentarily" sped up the plane before abandoning take-off altogether.

The "action slip" and resulting fire forced the pilot to desperately stop the aircraft when it was reaching speeds around 190mph on the runway. The plane "stopped some distance before the end of the runway" and firefighters at the airport were dispatched to put out a blaze on the right-hand landing gear.

None of the 344 passengers or the 13 crew members on board were injured. At the time, the experienced co-pilot said he could not think why he made the mistake and said he was "well-rested and feeling fine".

The co-pilot had over 6,100 hours of flying experience and last flew two weeks before the shocking incident. The AAIB added that British Airways had sent out a safety notice to pilots four days before this incident reminding them to "pause before execution and cognitively consider what the required action is".

The AAIB said the airline had "included 'mis-selections' in a new 'safety topic' section of its pre-flight briefing material for crew" and was promoting focus during flight simulator trainings for pilots.

A British Airways spokesperson said: "Safety is always our highest priority and our pilots brought the aircraft to a safe stop.

"We apologised to our customers and our teams worked hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible."

Gatwick Airport at the time said in a statement that the plane had been abandoned "due to the departing aircraft having hot breaks".

British Airways flights have also been forced to make emergency stops for other reasons, in the past. One of these included a that forced a flight from Washington DC to London to make an emergency landing in Boston, just last month.