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At times I feel my wife and children would be

better off if I'd crashed the plane and died...


By Angella Johnson
Last updated at 12:10 AM on 21st March 2010

Former British Airways pilot Peter Burkill is not a man naturally given to displays of emotion.

Keeping calm and controlled is vital when your job is to captain airliners packed with hundreds of passengers.

So he was shocked to find himself in floods of tears while watching television coverage of the British female bobsleigh pair’s
terrifying crash during the Winter Olympics last month.

Peter Birkill with his wife Maria and sons Troy, Logan and Coby: Peter says he feels like a 'broken man' now he can't find work as a
pilot

‘I was stunned at just how hard it hit me,’ he says. ‘I felt the athletes’ disappointment as if it were my own. I knew how much
training had gone into preparing for the Games.

'It shows how, in just a few seconds, everything you’ve worked hard for can be cruelly snatched away.’

The speeding sleigh’s perilous slide, upside down along the icy track, exposed an emotional fragility over his own brush with
death when his stricken Boeing 777 dramatically crash-landed at Heathrow Airport in January 2008.

Only his intervention in the last few seconds – lowering the wing flaps to gain more height – prevented the first major catastrophe
at Heathrow and saved the lives of 152 people on board.

He was hailed a hero and, the day after the crash, was greeted by cheers and applause not only from BA staff but from reporters
and photographers too.

One commentator summed up the mood: ‘He should be given a medal the size of a frying pan.’ He was even invited to meet the
Queen at the opening of Terminal 5.
And yet a few days later all talk was of the heroism of co-pilot John Coward because he had been flying the plane.

And, disastrously for Peter, false rumours began that he had ‘frozen’ at the controls, leaving his co-pilot to land the aircraft. Within
months Peter found himself driven out of BA by whispering within the company.

‘There are days when I feel bitter. I’ve lost everything – my job, my
home and the secure future I had worked hard to provide for my family.
I am a broken man. I feel hung out to dry'
Two official reports into the crash cleared him of any wrong-doing, yet he is now unemployed and unable to find work as a pilot.

Despite applying for more than a dozen jobs to fly 777s in the past 12 months, he has not even had an interview.

Speaking for the first time about how his life has been all but destroyed by the crash, Peter blames BA’s management for allowing
the false suspicion to fester that he had done something wrong, damaging his previously unblemished professional reputation.

He says: ‘There are days when I feel bitter. I’ve lost everything – my job, my home and the secure future I had worked hard to
provide for my family. I am a broken man. I feel hung out to dry.

'Even though airlines accept that my actions were commendable, they refuse to interview me because the crash was high-profile.

‘It looks like I’ll never get another job as a commercial pilot. I feel cheated. People tell me, “Surely, after what you did, every airline
would want you.” Sadly, the opposite is the case.’

Peter, 45, from Worcester, insists: ‘Had I not adjusted the flaps, the plane would have struck a line of Instrument Landing System
antennae and probably exploded.

'Yet my colleagues gained the impression that I had done nothing to save the aircraft. They heard that I froze on the flight deck.

‘Despite pleading with BA to issue a statement explaining what happened, they refused. I was told to keep quiet and hide from the
media.

BA Flight 38 from Beijing suddenly lost power, two miles before landing, when fuel pipes became blocked by ice crystals

'I couldn’t defend myself publicly. Willie Walsh [BA’s chief executive] and my managers said they would be there for me after the
crash, but I feel badly let down.

‘Work stopped being something I looked forward to because of the whispering. I felt exposed and vulnerable. I constantly had to
defend my actions during the crash. When I heard that some staff were scared to fly with me, I felt I had no option but to leave.’

It was not the outcome Peter had expected after his heroism. BA Flight 38 from Beijing suddenly lost power, two miles before
landing, when fuel pipes became blocked by ice crystals.

His quick action in the last 30 seconds of the flight was critical as the aircraft plunged to the ground after engine failure.

His instinctive decision to adjust the flaps – thus gaining the aircraft a few vital extra feet in height – was unprecedented. In the
euphoric aftermath, the shy father of five and his co-pilot were both praised by Mr Walsh.

John had been in charge of landing the aircraft simply because the two men took turns to fly it, and the London end was John’s
responsibility.

Peter recalls: ‘Immediately after the crash I was examining the damaged plane with Willie Walsh when he asked me to talk to the
media about what had happened.

He said it would be good for the company. I’ve always been a loyal company man, so I agreed. But I don’t think my head was
right. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

‘BA had a statement saying I had done everything, but I insisted that it was too one-sided. It was my decision to reveal that the
first officer was flying the aircraft when the problem occurred and that I had to sort it out. I wanted the truth to be known.’

Peter's quick action in the last 30 seconds of the flight was critical as
the aircraft plunged to the ground after engine failure. In the euphoric
aftermath, the shy father of five and his co-pilot were both praised by Mr
Walsh
It was Peter’s honesty that was the catalyst for speculation about his role.

‘BA only had to say that in certain emergencies the captain is responsible for running diagnostic checks while the first officer flies
the plane, and it would have put all rumours to bed,’ he says.

‘Instead, it was left as a mystery as to why I wasn’t flying. The fact is that, in an emergency, only about five per cent of a pilot’s
skills are for actually flying. I was the only one who could have authorised releasing the flaps.

‘I would not have had the time to think about it if I had taken the controls. That’s what my bosses should have told the media. It
was the start of their failure to do right by me.’

Peter and his wife Maria, 36, contrast his sour experience with that of Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who last year landed a U.S.
Airways jet on the Hudson River to avoid hitting buildings in New York.

He was openly paraded at public events and his wife eulogised him in numerous interviews.

In contrast, on the day of the BA crash, Maria was advised by a Press officer to take her children, leave her home and ‘keep low’.
BA decided – wisely or not – that she would not cope with the large media crowd who camped on her doorstep.

She fled to Butlins in Minehead, Somerset, with her three sons Troy, now four, Logan, three, and Coby, two. Peter, who also has
two children from a previous marriage, joined them after his Press conference.

‘Hiding made Peter look guilty,’ says Maria. ‘I asked why I couldn’t just say that I was proud of my husband and they advised
against it.’
Peter Burkill was hailed a hero after helping to crash-land a stricken passenger jet at Heathrow

Captain Sullenberger was able to retire with a £2million book deal.

The Burkills, sitting in the large living room of their luxury five-bedroom detached house, overlooking a quarter-acre manicured
garden and a 100ft mooring on the River Severn, can only contemplate an uncertain future.

This dream home has been sold, at a loss, for £560,000 with completion due in July.

‘At times I feel my family would have been better off if I had not moved the flaps,’ says Peter, who, with Maria, has also written a
book about their experiences.

‘OK, I would not be here, but they would be financially secure. If I had died, this house would be fully paid for.

‘Instead, everything’s unstable. We will leave here for rented accommodation in the summer. Maria’s the one supporting the
family financially.’

Maria, a strong-willed woman who grew up in the Wirral on Merseyside, is a former BA stewardess who retrained as an
ambulance technician.

After three days in Butlins, the family returned home. Peter had to attend numerous meetings with crash investigators and, as in
any plane crash, was unable to fly until cleared by a trauma psychiatrist.

Peter says: ‘The co-pilot and I went back at about the same time – about a month later – though some crew were traumatised by
what happened and were off for about six months.’

But on Peter’s first flight, to Houston, Texas, two of the cabin crew told him they had been told by a safety trainer on a recent
course that ‘Captain Burkill had frozen’ at the controls. Peter was furious and complained to his manager.

He was assured that a BA report into the crash would be issued within two weeks to every staff member, explaining the actions
taken. He advised Peter to take time off until then.

But weeks stretched into months without any sign of the report and new rumours began to circulate on internet sites about why he
wasn’t working.
Maria, who was herself suffering from post-natal depression, watched with concern as her husband’s self-confidence took a
battering.

‘After Pete’s return from Houston, he was very upset by what was being said about him,’ she says. ‘I asked if he’d do the same
thing if it happened again and he said he would. I said he shouldn’t fly for a while. I didn’t think he was in a fit state.

‘But staying home was hard for him. He had become a different man – a mass of pent-up frustration.

'His patience was fraught and there were times I couldn’t risk leaving him with the boys in a room because I feared what he might
do.

'My normally placid husband wouldn’t hurt a fly, but suddenly I feared he might hit one of the children.

Peter’s income support is just ending and he is considering a career as


a driving instructor or a pub landlord, but can he live without flying?
'He kept badgering the BA Press office and his union to put out a statement in his defence.

'The union simply said, “Every pilot knows what you did and why you did it.” BA repeated that he should wait for the internal
report.’

In the meantime, Peter discovered that his £130,000 salary, including flight pay, had been cut by thousands. After weeks of
negotiations it was increased, but not to the full amount.

‘They should have given him a huge bonus for saving lives,’ Maria says angrily. ‘Instead, they sent him home and cut his pay.’

When the BA report was finally completed, three months later than expected, it unequivocally cleared his name.

But it was only circulated to directors. Maria says they were told this was to avoid it being leaked to the Press. ‘We were
devastated and felt so betrayed,’ she says.

Peter went back to work in May 2008, and still had to listen to doubts about his judgment.

If anything, the whispering was worse and was the main topic of conversation on every flight. He says: ‘I felt everyone was looking
at me or wanting to ask questions. I felt exposed and vulnerable.

‘Even when I said what had happened, I could see in their eyes that some of them didn’t believe me.

'It hurt, especially when I heard that some crew members didn’t want to fly with me because they didn’t trust my competency.’

By November 2008, he had decided to look elsewhere for a job and was given strong indications that there could be a place with
Emirates, in Dubai, once they started to recruit 777 pilots the following year.

When BA began offering voluntary redundancy in May 2009, he saw a way to leave with a nest-egg as well.

But it is a decision that occasionally comes back to haunt him. Emirates decided that he was too high-profile to hire and Asian
carriers he approached rejected him because of cultural superstition about flying with a captain who had crashed.

He now regrets having taken £130,000 redundancy (£40,000 of which went to the taxman). ‘However unhappy I was, at least if I
was still with BA we would be able to stay in the house we love and I’d be able to take care of my family,’ he says.

Surprisingly, both Peter and Maria support the company in the current industrial dispute.

He says: ‘A strike damages the company and is sad for the flying public.’ On his family’s uncertain prospects, he says: ‘Maria is
working full-time and I’ll have to do whatever job I can pick up. Sadly, I don’t think it will be in aviation.’

Peter’s income support is just ending and he is considering a career as a driving instructor or a pub landlord, but can he live
without flying?
‘It’s in my blood and is all I ever wanted to do,’ he admits. ‘But I have a family and responsibilities.

'Maria is going to do a midwifery course and hopefully that will allow us to emigrate to America. I really don’t see a way to make a
life here any more.’

A British Airways spokesman said yesterday: ‘Captain Burkill and the crew of BA38 are heroes and everyone at BA has publicly
supported and praised their action. Everyone at BA is very proud of them.’

To order Thirty Seconds To Impact by Peter and Maria Burkill, at £13.24 including p&p, visit www.peterburkill.com or
www.authorhouse.co.uk or call 0800 197 4150.

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