1985 Manchester Airport disaster
British Airtours Boeing 737-236 Advanced · Fire on the ground caused by uncontained engine failure on takeoff
From Manchester Airport (MAN) to Corfu Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport (CFU)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 55 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 137
- Survivors
- 82
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 15
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Boeing 737-236 Advanced
- Flight
- KT28M
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-BGJL
- Operator
- British Airtours
- Onboard fatalities
- 55
- Route
- From Manchester Airport (MAN)To Corfu Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport (CFU)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1985 Manchester Airport disaster occurred when British Airtours Flight 28M (also known as Flight 328), an international passenger flight, was en route from Manchester Airport to Corfu International Airport. It caught fire on takeoff on 22 August 1985, resulting in 55 fatalities.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-200, named River Orrin, was flown by British Airtours, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways. It had 131 passengers and 6 crew on the manifest. During the takeoff roll, a loud thump was heard, and takeoff was aborted. An engine failure had generated a fire and the captain ordered evacuation. The engine failure was later traced to an incorrectly repaired combustor can, causing it to rupture and its dome to puncture the left wing fuel tank. Most of the deaths were due to smoke inhalation, not burns; 82 people survived.
The accident was described as "a defining moment in the history of civil aviation safety". It brought about industry-wide changes to the seating layout near emergency exits, fire-resistant seat covers, floor lighting, fire-resistant wall and ceiling panels, more fire extinguishers and clearer evacuation rules.
Accident
The subsequent investigation into the accident said that the No. 9 combustor can on the port engine ruptured, and a section of the can was ejected forcibly into an underwing fuel tank access panel. That panel was fractured, allowing fuel to spill onto hot combustion gases from the engine. The resulting fire developed catastrophically, primarily due to the orientation of the aircraft and the fire to the wind, "even though the wind was light".
Investigation and cause
Causes
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report lists a cause for the accident and a separate cause for the fatalities, as well as four contributing factors:
The vulnerability of the wing tank access panels to impact
The lack of any effective provision for fighting major fires inside the aircraft cabin
The vulnerability of the aircraft hull to external fire
The extremely toxic nature of the emissions from the burning interior materials.
Chris Yates, an aviation analyst, later said of the accident, "This was very much a defining moment in the history of civil aviation safety. Specifically, the investigation found that a lot of materials inside the passenger cabin produced highly toxic fumes and required airlines to look again and re-invent the wheel, so to speak."
It brought about industry-wide changes to the seating layout near emergency exits, fire-resistant seat covers, floor lighting, fire-resistant wall and ceiling panels, more fire extinguishers and clearer evacuation rules.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1985 Manchester Airport disaster” (revision 1375377388, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1985 Manchester Airport disaster
- Revision
- 1375377388 · 2026-09-17 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2626134
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1985 Manchester Airport disaster" (page 776079, revision 1375377388)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.