Eric Moody pilot: Hero captain, who saved 263 lives on British Airways flight after all engines failed due to volcanic ash, dies aged 84

Hero airline captain Eric Moody, who saved 263 lives after navigating through volcanic ash, has passed away aged 84. He was piloting a 263-seater British Airways Boeing 747 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth in June 1982 when he ran into an ash plume erupting from Mount Galunggung in Java, Indonesia.

All four engines stopped for 14 to 15 minutes while the jet was sandblasted and plunged into darkness. Capt Moody said the ash cloud resembled a St Elmo's Fire electrical storm - as a bright blue glow lit up the sky around them.

After 14 minutes of silent flight and aiming to ditch in the ocean, Mr Moody and his two fellow officers managed to relight the engines in clear air and land their 260 passengers and cabin crew in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, saving all on board. Pilots today are trained to do what Capt Moody did if faced with that situation.

The landmark incident of June 1982 was the first potentially catastrophic encounter between an airliner and high altitude ash. The captain and his two fellow officers were decorated and the passengers acclaimed them as heroes.

Mr Moody’s announcement to the passengers after losing power has gone down in airline lore. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

He told The Times in 2010: “They copied what we did and published it in every pilot’s manual in the world. Before us, I don’t think they even saw ash as a danger”.

Even when three of the four engines were running again, Flight 9 had difficulty landing because the pilots could see almost nothing through the opaque windshield. Captain Moody told The Times that it was “a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse”. Captain Moody received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.