§ Mr. MacKinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what circumstances caused the Mayday call of Olympic Airways Boeing 737 Flight 265 from Athens on 17 January; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NorrisOlympic Airways Flight 0A265 on 7 January 1995 was inbound from Athens to London Heathrow at a time air traffic control was advising all aircraft of 40-minute delays in landing. When given the delay, 0A265, then holding in a "stack" at flight level 180, requested an earlier approach, stating engine de-icing problems. Air traffic control advised that a priority approach could be given only if the aircraft declared an emergency.
The pilot promptly made a "mayday" call, which is a distress emergency call to signify that an aircraft is threatened by grave and imminent danger and requests immediate assistance. This is for the captain to judge. However, there seems some doubt about the seriousness of the situation in this case: for example, there is no evidence that one engine had been shut down, as was reported in the press.
ATC offered the captain an immediate diversion to Gatwick airport, which he declined. Accordingly, the aircraft was then cleared for a direct approach to Heathrow airport, which instigated full emergency procedures. The aircraft landed safely and a subsequent examination apparently revealed no damage or technical malfunction.
The Civil Aviation Authority's safety data units received notification of the incident as an ATC occurrence report. Details of the incident have been passed to its flight operations policy department for consideration of any possible subsequent action by the authority.