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View all search results‘Jakarta incident’ changed aviation safety protocols
When volcanic ash silently choked all four engines of a Boeing 747 over Indonesia, it took 16 frantic minutes of gliding toward the ocean to spark a miracle—and rewrite the rules of global aviation forever.
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Distant landing: Airport officers assist a passenger upon her arrival at Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, West Java, on Sept. 6, 2026, after her Garuda flight was diverted from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, due to an eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau. (Antara/Dedi Suwidiantoro)
O
n the night of June 24, 1982, passenger Betty Tootell on British Airways flight 009 from London had comfortably settled in after dinner on the last leg of the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, Australia, when she heard the captain speaking.
Eric Moody, maintaining an incredible level of calm, made what is widely considered the most legendary, understated cockpit announcement in aviation history: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
The Boeing 747 with callsign Speedbird 9 cruising at a height of 11,000 meters experienced failure of all four engines leading to total loss of power. The aircraft started losing altitude and all attempts by the crew failed, forcing them to turn the aircraft over the Indian Ocean toward an airport in Indonesia.
The crew or the passengers had no clue as to what was happening, although they could see lights around the aircraft. This was one of the most harrowing emergencies in aviation history and led to a complete change in how pilots were trained.
Miraculously, for Capt. Moody, while contemplating a hard choice between crashing into the mountains of South Java or attempting a sea landing, all the four engines jumped back into life. The crew was able to gain altitude and landed at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.
What happened to BA 009 is the reason why all flights to and from Jakarta were canceled when Anak Krakatau, located in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, erupted on Sept. 4. The eruption completely stopped air traffic for three days to and from the Indonesian capital. A layer of ash covered many parts of Jakarta and the authorities resorted to spraying water on the main boulevards.
The explosion launched massive ash plumes up to 15,000 m into the sky. Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes in the world, about 130 of them. Every year a few are always erupting, disrupting aviation and threatening lives.
