Pilot recalls how he saved the lives of the entire Leeds Utd squad 83 year old John Hackett has been speaking about the time 22 years ago, when he saved the lives of the entire Leeds Utd squad. Leeds had just been defeated 3-0 at West Ham, and were flying back to Leeds / Bradford airport from Stansted. The pilot who made a split-second decision when one of the engines exploded AFTER take off. Captain John Hackett defied protocol, and instead of circling the airport and re-landing, he managed to bring the Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft down at the end of a runway with the aircraft now in flames. It was later discovered that an identical plane in the same circumstance crashed, killing everyone on board when the pilot followed protocol. Unfortunately, the fire destroyed one of the wings, ultimately ending in tragedy. "We heard the most unbelievable bang and the whole sky lit up. I thought it was a bomb on board and I could hear the passengers screaming. "Gary Lucas, the first officer, was actually flying the aeroplane at the time, but because of my experience I said 'I have control' and we reversed our roles. "I flew the aeroplane while he carried out the emergency drills. Because the engine stopped so suddenly, the aeroplane yawed violently to the right, so I put in a lot of left rudder and steered it back to the direction of the runway and re-landed it. "The grass area at the end of the runway was undulating and there was a road running through it in the middle, so when the two nose wheels hit that they were pulled off and the nose ploughed into the ground. "The aeroplane was blazing away. We had used all of the fire extinguisher we had on board, which was built into the engines, and it was having no effect. "The two women were in the cabin evacuating everyone and Gary, the first officer, opened the front door, jumped out and started marshaling people out of various exits. "I dealt with shutting down the aeroplane and tried to get the fire under control. "We assembled all the people outside and counted to make sure there was nobody in there, but before I left the aircraft, and this is one of my nightmares, I ran up the aeroplane to check there was nobody jammed down between the seats. "As we had stopped suddenly, I thought someone could have slipped down quite easily. But there was no one there so I jumped off, while the aeroplane was blazing away. "The fire service arrived and were pouring foam all over the aeroplane. They managed to put it out. "We later found out that the engine had actually exploded. It hadn't failed and it wasn't an engine fire. "It was metal fatigure. One of the turbine disks in the engine, which was rotating at about 16,000 RPM, disintegrated and was like shrapnel. It ripped out through the hydraulics, the electrics and the fire protection system in the engine. "Had it come out horizontally, it would have gone through the passenger cabin and probably killed the passengers in line with it. But fortunately, it came out vertically and landed on the runway. "Burning fuel was pouring all over the wing. The wing was on fire and it was burning the under carriage and everything down below. "The whole event was somewhat frightening." "That is what would have happened if we had continued with that take off," "If I continued with the circuit, I wouldn't be talking to you today. "When you have an engine failure after take off, it's usually no big deal because you practice for it twice a year. "But this was so different. It seemed like a bomb. The only safe place to be was back on the ground." "It's one of those events, that if I lived to be 100, it would still be as thought it happened yesterday."
