Plane at London Gatwick Airport caught fire due to copilot mix-up

British aviation safety officials revealed in a report this week that a plane at London Gatwick Airport suffered a brake fire last June due to an error by the copilot.

During a British Airways flight on the way to Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 28, the pilot of the Boeing 777 jet called out for normal takeoff procedures. The copilot was supposed to move his left hand away and pull back on the control column with his right hand, the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch said in its report.

Instead, the copilot “unintentionally pulled his left hand back,” moving the thrust lever and reducing the plane’s speed as if it were landing rather than increasing it to take off. 

After another call out from the pilot, the copilot briefly moved the thrust lever in the proper direction but decided to continue the rejected takeoff maneuver he had initiated.

The copilot had “concern over re-adding thrust while further along the runway,” AAIB said, and the plane ultimately stopped before the end of the runway.

The thrust lever move, however, caused the jet’s brakes to catch fire while the 13-person crew and 334 passengers safely left the plane.

“Safety is always our highest priority, and our pilots brought the aircraft to a safe stop,” British Airways told the BBC on Friday.

The runway at Gatwick was closed for about 50 minutes due to the incident, causing 23 flights to be canceled and 16 others to be diverted, according to London’s Times.