Guardian Unlimited

Passengers in vibrating plane scare at 11,000ft

Special report: transport in Britain

Angelique Chrisafis Monday November 20, 2000

Passengers on a flight from Newcastle to Paris were asked by their captain to leave their seats and gather at the front or the craft would lose balance and crash, it emerged yesterday.

The 78 passengers and crew on Gill Airways flight AF5105 suspected a problem when the Fokker 100 began to vibrate around 90 minutes into its journey.

As it prepared to land at Charles de Gaulle airport, the passengers were assured the shaking would stop and the plane would land safely if they and the five cabin crew took seats at the front of the plane to balance it out.

The plane was travelling at 11,000ft but could not maintain its height. Passengers sat at the front for 15 minutes until it landed.They had been asked to occupy the few empty front seats on a flight that was around 80% full.

Executives at the Tyneside airline, which operates an Air France franchise, had not identified the cause of the problem yesterday. However, nine days after the incident on November 3, the plane was back in service.

Stan Abbott, a spokesman for Gill Airways, said: "Passengers at the back of the plane were asked to go to sit in the empty seats at the front of the cabin. It was to assist with weight distribution, basically. I don't want to speculate with an investigation still ongoing, but the crucial thing is that the aircraft is back in service."

He said the plane was back in use with the endorsement of the manufacturer and the air accident investigation branch of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. Fittings such as the flight control computer had been replaced and Gill Airways continued to operate its fleet of three Fokker 100 aircraft in Air France colours.

Mr Abbott added: "The plane has operated without incident since."

The department is investigating the incident, and a company insider said yesterday: "I am concerned. There was no fault found by engineers, so the aircraft was sent flying again with passengers on board and still is.

"At the same time, teams of investigators are still trying to find out what caused it by going through the flight data recorder and flying the simulator."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 20, 2000