‘There was orange and red fire, all streaming backwards. At that point I knew there was serious problem’
07:06, 23 Aug 2025Updated 11:56, 23 Aug 2025
Smoke billows over the runway after the British Airtours Boeing 737 caught fire at Manchester Airport(Image: Express Newspapers)
It was the tragedy that took place ‘within a minute’ and changed air travel forever.
Forty years ago, on August 22, 1985, 53 passengers and two crew members died when the Corfu-bound Boeing 737 caught fire on the runway at Manchester Airport. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation.
The disaster happened when the British Airtours flight, with 131 passengers and six crew on board, was heading down the runway just after 7am. Faulty welding in one of the aircraft’s engines led to an explosion as the plane was taking off.
But then, as the captain aborted take-off and turned the plane off the runway towards the fire station, a change of wind direction meant that the flames quickly spread to the rear of the aircraft. As the plane came to a standstill thick black smoke choked the cabin.
The order was given to evacuate, but one of the doors at the rear jammed, and the tight, narrow layout of the seats meant exit was impeded. As toxic fumes filled the plane, passengers scrambled over seats and battled to escape in a desperate battle for survival.
The M.E.N. front page on the day of the disaster
“The whole tragedy took place within a minute,” a police spokesman told the M.E.N. later that day.
Keith Middleton, then 21, and from Liverpool, was sitting four rows from the front with his girlfriend, when the fire broke out. “There were loads of kids on board but everyone was trampling over everything and anybody to get out,” he said at the time. “It was like being in hell.”
Ellis Ward, then 20, from Northwich, was flying out with a party of six, including his girlfriend Debbie. “It was my first time on an aeroplane so I didn’t really understand anything that was happening,” he said in the immediate aftermath.
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“We saw the fire on the wing when the plane was moving and people started to panic but the stewardesses calmed them down. We were told to stay in our seats and some sort of order was established, but then I looked behind and I saw that the flames were already coming inside the aeroplane.
“The fire seemed to be coming through the fuselage. There was no way then that anyone was going to stay in their seat.
Firefighters at the scene of the disaster(Image: MEN)
“People started moving forwards away from the flames but the fire was getting closer and then a haze of smoke came over all our heads making it difficult to see. I looked around for Debbie and she was just behind me. We went down the chute and landed in foam. The fire brigade had got there very quickly.
“We were helped up and started to run when someone put up on to a bus. I didn’t look back. I didn’t want to see any more.”
The Manchester Airport plane fire tragedy that claimed 55 lives
In 2015 survivor John Beardmore recounted his own harrowing experience of the fire. John was going on holiday with his wife Pamela, then 37, and their two boys Simon, 14, and David, 12, when the disaster unfolded.
“I felt uncomfortable,” he said. “I was just staggered by the number of people on the aircraft. When I sat down in row 13, my knees were pressed into the seat in front.
John Beardmore and wife Pamela were on board with their sons, David and Simon.(Image: Matt Ratcliffe)
“There were over 130 passengers. I remember thinking ‘this is going to be an uncomfortable flight’, but I was thinking of the holidays.”
As they began to pick up speed on the runway and were about to take-off, John said passengers heard a big thump.
“I think we all thought it was a tyre bursting, but within seconds someone on the left side of the cabin shouted the engine was on fire. I could see through a window black fumes coming out of the engine. There was orange and red fire, all streaming backwards. At that point I knew there was serious problem.
“My wife got our two children up and went straight to the front – she had a good view of the fire and knew how serious it was.”
But by the time John got up, the gangway was totally blocked – and the plane continued to taxi at very slow speed down the runway.
Airport fire crews assess the Boeing 737(Image: MEN Archive)
“The plane turned right and as it did I heard people screaming at the back because the wind was blowing the flames from the engine directly on to the cabin,” he said. “The windows began to break and black toxic fumes were coming into the cabin at the back.”
After they stopped, a shoot jammed in one of the doors, losing valuable time – and another door had to be opened. Finally, the aisle queue began to move. Passengers began escaping from the wing exit too.
“I was near the back, a black cloud of dense fumes and smoke started to roll down the cabin. When it hit you you just choked, one or two breaths and you knew you’d collapse.
“They just blocked every air way, I started to choke and my knees went, I just saw white air, I thought it was a window and made my way towards it – it was the front door, there was a shoot in front of me and I went down it.”
A memorial plaque at the airport remembering those who died
John was the last person to escape from the aircraft. The family seated next to him did not survive.
“The scars never heal – sometimes even when I’m driving or doing things something will trigger off a flash point and your memory and you just can’t help that and you just have to learn to live with it,” he said.
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“That’s going to be with you for the rest of your life. But I hope we never forget it because people around us weren’t as lucky as my family – people I was sitting next to died. I never want to forget even though it’s painful when those flashbacks occur.”
Firemen were at the scene within minutes and many of the people sliding down the two front chutes on the aircraft were smothered in foam being used to put out the flames. Some 82 people managed to escape.
In the following days a hangar at the airport was turned into a makeshift mortuary, where relatives had the heart breaking task of identifying those who had died.
Captain Peter Terrington at work when he was younger
The tragedy had a profound effect on the plane’s captain, Peter Terrington. His wife Joan said Peter, who died just months after the 30th anniversary in 2015, thought and talked about it almost every day, as he struggled to come to terms with survivor’s guilt.
“Technically what he did was exemplary,” said Joan, who worked as cabin crew. “He did his best. But procedures are very different now. He was completely devastated that passengers lost their lives.”
There were many accounts of bravery from the air crew who remained on board to help passengers escape. One air hostess, Joanna Toff, physically dragged passengers from the blazing aircraft, including a young girl who was trampled underfoot in the stampede to escape. She was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for bravery.
The charred wreckage of the plane(Image: Press Association)
Following the disaster, investigations showed that cracks in part of the engine led to the fire. It was to prove a turning point in air safety.
In its report, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded: “The major cause of the fatalities was rapid incapacitation due to the inhalation of the dense toxic/irritant smoke atmosphere within the cabin, aggravated by evacuation delays caused by a forward right door malfunction and restricted access to the exits.”
The AAIB made 31 recommendations following the tragedy, with many acted upon. Now an aircraft on fire will now always stop on the runway rather than taxiing away from the strip – ensuring passengers are evacuated more quickly.
Spaces around the exits were also expanded making it easier to escape, materials used in seats were made fire resistant and cabin crews were trained to assess if passengers sitting on exit rows are able to open emergency doors.
This overhead shot shows the extent of the destruction caused by the fire
Graham Braithwaite, a Professor of Safety and Accident Investigation at Cranfield University, said the Manchester disaster remains ‘one of the most significant’ aircraft crashes in history.
“And not just for the UK but actually in terms of the effect it’s had globally through the recommendations that were made and the actions that were taken by national regulators, by manufacturers and by operators right around the world,” he told Granada. “It really did have a profound effect on aviation safety.”
A private memorial service to mark the disaster’s 40th anniversary and remember the 55 people who died was held at the airport yesterday (Friday).