UK: Crash land captain praises crew's teamwork

The captain who commanded the British Airways plane which crash landed at Heathrow spoke today of the teamwork and professionalism of his cockpit and cabin crew.

Father-of-three Peter Burkill also revealed that John Coward, his first officer - or co-pilot – was at the controls as the Boeing 777 came in to land.

British Airways staff cheered as the pilots, the plane’s cabin services director Sharon Eaton-Mercer and BA chief executive Willie Walsh appeared at the airline’s Heathrow headquarters for the brief statement from Mr Burkill.

Smiling as Mr Walsh held up his hands to get the applause to die down, father-of-three Captain Burkill said BA staff were trained to deal with emergencies and to follow procedures.

He said flying was about teamwork and he praised the “high standard of skill and professionalism” by the crew of flight BA038.

He went on: “We had an outstanding team on board yesterday.”

Mr Burkill added that Mr Coward, with whom he shared a curry last night after their ordeal, had done “a most remarkable job”.

There was also praise from Mr Burkill for the passengers and for the emergency services. He said he could not go into causes of the crash.