Captain Bill Hagan has now retired from commercial flying after 31 years. He is for the first time in his career free to tell the complete story of the attempted hijacking incident on board British Airways, London-Nairobi flight BA2069, which came within a whisker of becoming at the time the world’s 3rd worst airline crash.
On board were Benjamin Goldsmith, his sister, Jemima Khan and his mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, widow of businessman, Sir James Goldsmith. Rock singer Bryan Ferry was also on board and interest in the flight was renewed by his release to youtube in 2012 of a video recording, taken on the plane, immediately after the incident. The attempted hijack is still of enormous interest to aviators and the general public alike.
Captain Bill Hagan was awarded a bravery medal at the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) People of the Year awards.
What makes this incident so interesting?
✦The incident was the most extreme in UK commercial aviation history in terms of the extreme loss of control.
✦It was one of the most significant in UK history in that it led directly to the locking of aircraft cockpit doors in UK Airlines in late 2001. Even if the awful events of September 11th had not occurred, UK Airlines would have a locked door policy, as a result of what happened on the BA2069 flight.
✦It is perhaps the most intriguing incident because in spite of the above, there was no CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) enquiry- merely a review of the flight, commenced months after the event, and which was not made public.
Captain Bill Hagan was the Captain of that fateful flight and now he delivers a 60-90 minute presentation- "What’s behind the Locked cockpit door?", which describes the background to the flight, in relevant personal terms, shows and discusses aspects of the extreme loss of control of the aircraft, describes in detail what happened during the terrifying 3 minutes, what his thoughts were at the time, and how the sequence of those thought led to removal of the intruder from the controls. He outlines the many various subsequent events including his concern for and preventative treatment against Aids infection, the emergence of a legal case against BA, and he discusses how the decision not to investigate the incident was overtaken by a decision to review the event which would recommend closure of cockpit doors, a few weeks before the attack on the twin towers on September 11th.
The subject of loss of control of an aircraft has of course become a hot topic now, following the reporting of the unfortunate Air France flight AF447, which stalled into the South Atlantic, with the loss of all on board. The CAA unusually sent a DVD on Loss of Control to all UK commercial pilots. As flight BA2069 was and still is, one of the worst loss of control incidents in worldwide commercial flights.