BA crash captain returns to work

Peter Burkill was praised in the report seen by the BBC

A captain who helped avoid a disaster when his British Airways (BA) aircraft crash-landed at Heathrow Airport has returned to work.

Peter Burkill, of Worcester, and his co-pilot were praised in a BA probe for stopping the Boeing 777 from crashing into a fence after its engines failed.

Senior First Officer John Coward took control of the plane which was en route from Beijing when it got into trouble.

Mr Burkill has been off work since the incident on 17 January.

'Bit disappointed'

A report seen by the BBC revealed Mr Burkill had prevented a far worse crash by adjusting the wing flaps to give the aircraft enough lift to avoid the perimeter fence.

Mr Burkill's wife, Marie, said her husband had found it difficult to defend his actions since the incident.

Mrs Burkill told BBC Hereford and Worcester: "He started off extremely confident because he knew that he had proved himself fantastically as a pilot.

"When he starting having to defend his actions... it started getting him a bit disappointed.

"People were questioning him as to what were you doing, did you do anything, when in actual fact his moving these flaps gave them the lift to land."

She said her husband, who had not been allowed to fly pending the investigation, had returned to work on Wednesday for a flight simulator session and expected to be back in the air again next week.

After the aircraft crash-landed, the 136 passengers and 16 crew were led to safety.

BA has refused to comment on the internal report, which has been seen by BBC News.

An investigation by the Air Accident Investigation Board is continuing.