On 24 June 1982, British Airways Flight 9 was crossing the Indian Ocean in the dark, a Boeing 747 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Perth with 263 people aboard. In the cockpit were 3 men: Captain Eric Moody, First Officer Roger Greaves, and flight engineer Barry Townley-Freeman.
Then a strange glow appeared on the windscreen, like sparks racing across the glass, and the engines began to glow too.
What the crew could not see, because it does not show up on weather radar, was that a volcano had erupted below them and filled the night sky with abrasive ash. The 747 flew straight into it. One by one, the ash choked all 4 engines until every one of them died.
At 37,000 feet, the largest airliner in the world had become the largest glider in the world, and no one aboard knew why.
Moody picked up the intercom. "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 them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
Then came the math. They had to stay high enough to clear the mountains on the coast of Java. If they sank below that line before the engines caught, they would have to turn out to sea and ditch in the dark. They ran the restart drill again and again as the altimeter unwound, while the cabin crew kept order and teamed solo passengers together for support.
At 13,500 feet, one engine lit. Then the rest. Engine number 2 began surging and had to be shut down, so they turned for Jakarta on 3.
The ash had one last cruelty. It had sandblasted the windscreen almost opaque, so they would have to land on instruments. Then they learned the airport's vertical guidance was out of service that night. So Greaves built his own. Using an approach chart from his flight bag and the runway's distance readings, he called out the height they should be at for every mile left, and Moody flew those numbers down, looking through a small clear part of the glass.
The passengers applauded when the wheels touched. All 263 survived.
All 3 men were decorated for that night. And 2 strangers who had been sitting near each other in the cabin later married.
Eric Moody died in March 2024, at 82.