Talk:British European Airways Flight 548

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's a line in here about there being 'no fire on impact'. Does this refer to the fact that the plane itself wasn't on fire at the time of the crash? Because this is probably true of a lot of plane crashes, and as such, isn't really needed here, is it? Does anyone else have an opinion on this? (Maaya 04:16, 20 August 2005 (UTC))

There was no fire at all. That is quite unusual. Graham 09:55, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't know about before impact, but there certainly was a considerable fire at the crash scene (Anon, 06 January 2006)

According to my source (Stanley Stewart's Air Disasters) a small fire broke out as rescuers were using cutting tools to free those trapped inside the aircraft. The fire was near the flight deck and was quickly brought under control - presumably that is what the photo on the BBC site shows. The original line on there being no fire on impact, and this being unusual, was actually correct considering the type of crash, i.e., a flat descent (belly flop) straight into the ground. Ian Dunster 22:13, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. We could probably put that back into the article then, with maybe a little bit of what was said here for clarification to laypersons such as myself? I guess when I think about plane crashes, I just try to think of the ideal way I'd like to go: no fire, sudden impact, no pain. Can you believe I started reading and editing these air disaster articles as a way to get over my fear of flying? -Maaya 03:41, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

I went ahead and put it back in. -Maaya 03:55, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Move

I see this page was recently moved. I don't know if there was any consultation about this - apparently not - but I disagree with it. This particular accident is widely known to residents of the UK, and almost always referred to informally as the 'Staines air disaster'. Nobody except those with a keen knowledge of the crash already will know that it was BEA flight 548, so the article naming does not make the article easy to find, or recognise for what it is really referring to. I beleieve the origibal title is more appropriate, and is in line with other similar articles where a particularly notable accident is referred to by its location rather than the details of the flight. Few people refer to e.g. Lockerbie as anything other than Lockerbie, likewise with this one (for those with longer memories). The drawback of this naming change can be seen by viewing the category "Disasters in the United Kingdom" - Staines isn't mentioned at all, just BEA Flight 548 - well, what's that when it's at home? Oh, you mean Staines!! Graham 09:55, 23 October 2005 (UTC)