Captain Cool saved 151 lives in crash is handsome charmer
A British Airways pilot was hailed a hero last night after avoiding a major disaster by successfully crash-landing his stricken plane at Heathrow.
Flight BA 38, carrying 150 passengers and crew, suffered a catastrophic double engine failure on its final approach to the world's busiest airport.
Last night investigators were probing whether the catastrophe was caused by a bird striking the plane.
Just 20 seconds from landing, Captain Peter Burkill suddenly found he had no power.
He fought desperately to keep the Boeing 777 on course and high enough to miss nearby houses and the busy road beside the airport.
As drivers watched in horror, the jet cleared the airport's perimeter fence by just a few feet and smashed onto grass hundreds of yards short of the runway.
The impact tore off part of its landing gear and the plane skidded across the grass on its belly, gouging deep tracks, as the rain-softened soil helped slow it down.
Captain Peter Burkill has been known for years by family and friends as "Peter the Perfect Pilot".
Married three times and with five children, Capt Burkill, 44, is every inch the handsome, charming pilot - described by one neighbour as the "perfect man for a crisis".
His wife Maria, with whom he has three young sons, was unavailable for comment and had left the £500,000 family home in Worcester to stay with relatives.
But on Friends Reunited, Mrs Burkill, 34 - a former British Airways air hostess and Butlins Redcoat who is now a paramedic - describes her husband as "the man of my dreams".
A friend who did not wish to be named told how Capt Burkill had wanted to be a pilot since childhood.
"That's all he ever wanted to do," said the friend. "He is a very lovely man. He is very handsome and very charming. We always used to call him Peter the Perfect Pilot."
Neighbour Valerie Firminger said: "I don't think anything fazes him. I have real problems flying and he has helped me.
"If you ever wanted anyone to be in charge of a plane, you would want Peter.
"He is so perfectly cool, calm and collected. The kind of person you would want in a crisis."
Yesterday, hundreds of flights were disrupted amid chaotic scenes at Terminal 4.
The southern runway was closed when the stricken flight landed at 12.42pm. Two hours later, at 2.45pm, it began operating at a limited capacity for take-offs only.
The terminal's northern runway was also operating for arrivals only. All British Airways' short-haul flights out of Heathrow and some long-haul flights were cancelled.
By 6pm, 222 flights had been struck off the normal flying schedule of 1,300, while 24 incoming flights were diverted to airports including Gatwick, Luton and Stansted.
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