Here is a small portion of the report:
On the clear, moonless night of 24 June 1982, Scheduled BA flight 009 took off from sweltering Kuala Lumpur bound for Australia. There were 249 passengers on board the plane, which was laden with 91,000kg of fuel for the five-hour flight to Perth.
At the controls was Captain Eric Moody (pictured recently). As they levelled out at the 747’s cruising altitude of 11,300 metres, the crew ate their evening meal, just as the flight passed south of the city of Jakarta.
His dinner eaten, Captain Moody left the cabin and made his way down the spiral stairs to the first class section in search of an unoccupied toilet; but before he could find one he was called back. Moody remembers noticing as he turned some little puffs of what seemed to be smoke issuing from vents on the floor. There was also an odour that reminded him of the smell left behind after electrical sparks have flown.
When Moody reached the cockpit the crew had already switched on the seatbelt signs and the engine igniters, to support the combustion of the fuel, just in case. The windscreens were lit up with the most impressive displays of St Elmo’s fire the captain had ever seen. The weather radar, though, showed nothing unusual. Then the First Officer pointed out that all the engines appeared to be lit from within by electrical discharges. In moments, the St Elmo’s fire changed to something resembling tracer bullets. Almost immediately, Roger the Senior Engineer called: “Engine failure number four”.
There was a pause. Then he announced: “Engine failure number two….three’s gone…. they’ve all gone.”
Moody said: “OK Roger, put out a Mayday”.
13.44 “Jakarta, Jakarta, Mayday, Mayday Speedbird 9. We’ve lost all four engines. We’re leaving 370.”
and I can assure you the work done back at base and at the Met Office has been heroic.