'Hero' pilot who saved passengers on burning Gatwick-bound plane: 'They shouldn't have gone back for their hand luggage'

Hero: Chris Henkey
ITV
Rachel Blundy18 September 2015

A heroic pilot who helped save passengers on a burning Gatwick-bound plane has criticised them for going back to get their hand luggage.

Chris Henkey urged the 169 people on board the British Airways aircraft to evacuate down emergency slides after a fire broke out while it travelled along the runway at Las Vegas airport.

Everyone on the Boeing 777-200 plane subsequently avoided injury after the blaze on September 9.

But today Mr Henkey, 63, warned it could become necessary to for airline crews to lock the overhead luggage cabins in similar situations after some passengers went back to retrieve their belongings.

He told LBC Radio: "Not just in our case but in any case where cabin crew are trying to get passengers off quickly, it is clear that the passengers should not be taking their luggage with them. "

In an extended interview with the radio station, he said: "What is a cabin member (of any airline) to do? Are they going to stop at the door and asked the people to give them their hand luggage?

"That is going to take time and the prime reason the cabin crew are there is to get the passengers off quickly - that would delay it.

"People shouldn't be taking it off, but if they do there is not much to be done.

"The only thing that maybe will happen in the future is that the overhead bins will be made lockable and locked from take-off until after landing."

Up in flames: Passengers were forced to flee using emergency chutes
EPA

The aircraft was travelling between 40 and 100mph ahead of the 10-hour flight to Gatwick when the captain slammed the brakes on.

BA has stated the incident happened after the aircraft ''experienced a technical issue''.

Investigators found the engine had "multiple breaches" in its casing, causing parts of the engine flew out onto the runway.

Mr Henkey, of Reading, Berkshire, was on his penultimate flight of his 42-year career with BA before retirement.

He went on to say that he felt "embarrassed" about the media attention he had received following the fire evacuation.

He told ITV News: "[It's] slightly embarrassing because it's not one person, which is what the papers focused on, it's the other two pilots plus ten cabin crew, who are all heroes in their own right".

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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