‘I’m finished flying,’ British Airways hero pilot says after Las Vegas fire

Ian Callaghan, from Bellewstown, Co Meath, worked with Captain Chris Henkey to bring flight BA2276 to a halt after its left engine caught fire on Wednesday during take-off at McCarran worldwide Airport in Las Vegas.

NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration investigators, along with teams from Boeing and engine manufacturer General Electric, were examining the aircraft before removing the damaged engine for a thorough analysis.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating the incident.

The passengers and crew all made it off the plane, and any injuries were minor — a result of the bumps, bruises and scrapes from sliding from an airplane.

A source close to the investigation said a physical inspection of the plane will be key in the case and may provide more clues than the black box, which can’t tell investigators if a part of the engine broke off.

The Boeing 777 is a popular workhorse for long-haul flights and has more than 1,200 delivered around the world.

“Five seconds later people were just flying down… and running away”, said Berberian, who estimated firetrucks were on the scene within two minutes.

“I was actually looking outside because I was making my Snapchats, because I was really sad to be leaving Vegas”, passenger Lynda Chapman said.

But he told NBC News he is “unlikely” to make his final flight, which would have taken him to Barbados to join his daughter in his favourite holiday destination.

The findings came as the pilot of the plane, hailed a hero after a “textbook” response to the blaze, said he had “finished flying”. We have a fire.

They will examine those clues and other factors – including the plane’s maintenance records and engine history – as they try to determine why its left engine caught fire as British Airways Flight 2276 sped down a runway Tuesday.

The report also said that material was recovered from the runway path the Boeing 777 had taken, including several pieces of the high pressure compressor spool.

“This is a highly unusual event, to have an engine failure of this magnitude”, he said.

The large plane with two GE90 engines was built in 1998 and was registered to British Airways a year later.

Cox said a breach in the engine casing could have crippled the effectiveness of a chemical system to snuff out an engine fire in flight. By the end of 2013, it had been flown for 76,618 hours, according to the British Civil Aviation Authority. Majority were injured when they used the emergency slides. Passengers are required by law to follow all crew instructions, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.