A U.S. airplane lost contact with the London City Airport radar after suffering a terrible crash in the Thames.
The terrible news came from a tweet posted by River Watchers, which reported that an airplane just crashed in the Thames River at 2:30 pm, just after taking off from London City Airport. As soon as the incident happened all emergency services, supported by units from Kent and Essex, attended the plane crash and contributed to save and assist the passengers on the US132 flight. The emergency services were also supported by Thames River Police and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which were able to gain more information on the case.
London City Airport was able to identify the flight and eventually confirmed that the US132 flight, departing from LCA, which was going to land at AMS, lost contact with their radar. LCA reported on a tweet that the airplane had just taken off from London City Airport when the accident happened. The pilot who was controlling the plane declared that he first wanted to land back at the airport but the bad conditions of the engine forced him to land in water.
Despite the terrible accident, the passengers congratulated the pilot for being able to save all of them. With the help of RNLI, all the 42 passengers and all the crew escaped from the aircraft, which slowly started to sink in the Thames waters, and were brought ashore. Help also came from the Essex ambulance. They treated two passengers for minor injuries and one passenger was brought to Queen Hospital, suspected to have a heart attack.
All the passengers were eventually brought to the Military Centre, where they were provided with drinks, as well as phones and WiFi to allow them to call their families.
Arrangements were then made to let them go back to their homes or LCA for an onward journey.
Finally, after an accurate examination of the aircraft by the British Transport Police, drone debris was found in the plane’s engines. It was discovered that the collision happened because of two drones, located 1,500 m east of London City, where the plane was flying.