I'm working out of our head office today in Heathrow. About 20 minutes ago the building shook and there was a loud bang. Next to the building there is a petrol station, part of the roof is now missing because a wheel touched it as the plane came in to land.

The plane landed well short of the runway and hit the ground hard. As I look out of the window the area is a mass of blue flashing lights. I can see the chutes coming out of the side of the plane and plenty of people have slid down them so it looks like there won't be many if any, casualties.

The whole area currently resounds of sirens.

Incidentally, it only managed to avert a Kegworth style crash onto a very busy main road (Great South West Road) by a matter of maybe 40 or 50 feet.

Lots of ambulances going in now. Concerning......

LOOKS LIKE GORDON WAS OFF TO VIST MR WHY
Last Updated: Thursday, 17 January 2008, 13:57 GMT


Airliner crash lands at Heathrow


The BA flight crash-landed at Heathrow Airport


An international passenger plane has crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport.
Passengers escaped down the emergency chutes after British Airways flight BA38 from Beijing came down.

Six ambulances were sent to the scene and three people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

The incident happened as Prime Minister Gordon Brown was due to leave Heathrow for China and India. His flight was delayed because of the incident.

The south runway is closed while investigators examine the scene - the north runway remains open.


On its approach it took the runway too low, just missing the roof of my cab
John Rowland, eyewitness
Eyewitness John Rowland said: "The plane's wheels collapsed, doors were flown open.

"On its approach it took the runway too low, just missing the roof of my cab.

"It crashed into the runway, debris was flying everywhere, there was an enormous bang and it skidded sideways."

Huge amount of smoke

Another eyewitness, Nick Gray, told BBC News: "We were taxiing along ready to take off and certainly out of the window I could see a plane coming in to land.

"I'm not quite sure if the under carriage was missing or not, but certainly what we saw was the plane coming down.


"There were some sparks as the undercarriage or the bottom of the plane actually touched the runway - certainly a huge amount of smoke coming up from that.

"And then the plane did come to a halt reasonably quickly.

"It was incredibly efficient the speed that people got off the aircraft.

"I could see that the shoots were deployed very quickly and people were coming down on that.

"Then people were sent off to the nearby buildings which are probably only about 200 yards away from the plane.

"There about six fire engines there now.

"There seems to have been regular dousing of foam on the port engine which obviously probably was the hottest one where the plane landed.

"Certainly there is a lot of activity and lots of vehicles with flashing lights all around the plane."

Are you in the area? Have you been caught up in events? You can send us your experiences using the form below:

You can send pictures and video to: yourpics@bbc.co.uk or to send via mobile please dial 61124.

If you have a large file you can upload here.

Do not endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

i reckon the pilot had one too many miniture cans of beer and liquers whilst flying

Just turned over to Sky News and obviously it is the main story with a live feed from there. It says three people are being treated for minor injuries.

The plane looks in a bit of a state like

They are saying the plane lost all power and the pilot had to glide the plane in, by the sounds of it he has done a brilliant job in getting it down without any casualties

Er.... isn't that normally what they do? I thought they only needed power for the braking thrust once they'd landed.