Graham in Concorde take-off scare
Chat show host Graham Norton was among celebrities on a BA Concorde at Heathrow which had to abort take-off after a dramatic engine failure on the runway.
Alarmed passengers including Graham Norton felt the plane lurch violently to the right as it started to pick up speed on the runway.
More than 90, some like Norton flying out to New York for Liza Minnelli's wedding or for the St Patrick's Day parade, had to disembark from Flight BA001 at 10.30am.
Embarrassingly for BA, the passenger list included journalists invited on the flight to celebrate the fact that its Concorde fleet has carried 10,000 passengers since going back into service.
It is the second time a Concorde take-off has been aborted since the relaunch in November some 15 months after 113 people died in the Air France Concorde disaster.
BA and the Civil Aviation Authority said the incident, while rare, should have no repercussions for Concorde continuing its comeback.
The plane is more prone to aborted take-offs than subsonic jets, with four of five such incidents a year average.
It was travelling at about 30mph at the time of the drama, compared with its take-off speed of 220mph.
Captain Paul Douglas said the flight had been aborted after a failure in the central computerised fuel control system. It led to a misfiring in one of plane's four engines.
"I have never experienced this before but there was no danger at all," he said. "I don't think it was anything to do with the engine but rather with the computer which controls acceleration at take-off."
Passengers seemed unconcerned as they were shepherded back to the Concorde hospitality lounges.
Norton said that he was a little disappointed with the delay. "But I don't know whether this is a regular occurrence" he added. "I've only ever flown Concorde once before."
Pehr Gyllenhammar, chairman of insurance group CGNU and former boss of Volvo, said: "I've always found Concorde very reliable."
The aircraft, Alpha Delta, is the fourth to return to service and has only been back for a few weeks. Two more Concordes are due back by the end of May.
Engineers were called in to overhaul the jet and the flight was being rescheduled for a 2pm departure. Passengers, who had typically paid £7,000 for a return ticket, were being told they would be receiving compensation yet to be decided.
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