09/17/2026
47 PEOPLE NEVER MADE IT HOME THAT NIGHT — BUT THEIR TRAGEDY CHANGED AVIATION FOREVER.
Today I visited the Kegworth Air Disaster Memorial at Whatton Road Cemetery, a quiet place remembering the lives lost on 8 January 1989.
British Midland Flight 92 was flying from London Heathrow to Belfast when the Boeing 737 suffered severe vibration, smoke and a burning smell from one of its engines.
The crew believed the right engine had failed and shut it down.
But it was actually the left engine that was damaged.
With one engine shut down and the other badly affected, the aircraft lost power and crashed onto the M1 embankment, around 900 metres short of the runway at East Midlands Airport.
There were 126 people on board. 47 died and 74 suffered serious injuries.
What makes Kegworth so important is what happened afterwards.
The investigation led to changes in engine-failure procedures, cockpit displays, pilot training and how crews identify which engine has actually failed. The AAIB specifically records Kegworth as an accident that led to improvements in cockpit displays and aircraft survivability.
The disaster also highlighted the importance of learning from accidents rather than simply asking who was to blame — an approach that remains central to modern air accident investigation.
Even the memorial itself has a remarkable connection to the crash: soil from the actual crash site was removed from the M1 embankment and placed here beneath the memorial garden.
Standing here today, 37 years later, it really makes you stop and think.
47 names. 47 lives. And lessons that have helped make flying safer for millions of people since.
Never forgotten. ❤️
East Midlands Airport
