Heathrow Safety

EDM number 443 in 1994-95, proposed by Andrew Mackinlay on 23/01/1995.

That this House congratulates BAA plc, the Civil Aviation Authority and the airlines on their safety record but expresses its concern at the incident on Tuesday 17th January on which an Olympic Airways Boeing 737, Flight 265 from Athens, declared a Mayday and was brought into Heathrow after shutting down one of its two engines; reflects on the fact that Heathrow is almost unique among major airports in that the final approach is generally directly overhead the most populous and economically and politically vital part of the country, and that the final approach is one of the most hazardous phases of any flight; recalls that if several recent final approach crashes at Coventry, Kegworth, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, New York and Pittsburg had happened at Heathrow there would have been catastrophic consequences for London and its people; has considerable anxiety that statistical analysis for the Airports Policy Consortium indicates the probability of a major air crash at Heathrow every 20 to 24 years, and that the last one occurred 22 years ago; urges that a central disaster plan be formulated for London in respect of aircraft flying into and out of Heathrow over Greater London; and considers that in the meantime plans for further expansion at Heathrow should be shelved and potential traffic growth be encouraged to use alternative airport capacity, and in particular Stansted.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.