The engine failure was later traced to an incorrectly repaired combustor, causing the turbine disc to shatter and puncture the wing fuel tanks.

[5]: 9–11  At 07:13 BST (06:13 UTC), on runway 24 at Manchester International Airport during the takeoff phase, the pilots heard a loud thump coming from underneath the plane.

[5]: 45 The aircraft turned off the runway onto a short taxiway called link "D" and came to a full stop facing northwest.

4 stewardess", Joanna Toff, had kept passengers out of the forward galley area to allow the purser time to open a door.

When the left side door was opened, exiting passengers jammed themselves in the narrow 57 cm-wide (22.5 in) passageway between the two forward galley bulkheads.

Two passengers lifted the hatch and put it on a seat in the next row back, making the exit available for use 45 seconds after the aircraft had stopped.

[5]: 43, 136–137, 180  Passengers in the rear of the aircraft were panicking as smoke, and eventually flames, filled the hot cabin at about the same time the right overwing exit was opened.

That fuel had ignited on contact with flames from the hole in the engine combustion chamber as the aircraft began to decelerate on the runway.

[5]: 211  By about this time, the fire had already penetrated the aluminium alloy skin of the aircraft below the level of the floor in the passenger compartment.

[5]: 102–103, 175  When the aircraft came to a stop, it was facing the northwest, and a light wind of 6–7 knots (7–8 mph; 11–13 km/h) was blowing from the west, carrying dense smoke, and occasionally flames, in through that door.

[5]: 7 Fire penetrated into the rear portion of the passenger cabin through the floor and along the left wall within one minute of the aircraft stopping.

[5]: 46–47  The cause of the explosion was not determined, but heat-induced overpressure and rupture of an aerosol spray can or therapeutic oxygen cylinder are suspected.

One passenger, a man rescued 33 minutes after the start of the fire, was found unconscious in the aisle, but died in the hospital six days later from injuries to his lungs and the resulting pneumonia.

Specifically, the investigation found that a lot of materials inside the passenger cabin produced highly toxic fumes and required airlines to look again and re-invent the wheel, so to speak.

9 combustor can on the port engine ruptured, and a section of the can was ejected forcibly into an underwing fuel tank access panel.

[5]: 64–76 The tragedy haunted captain Peter Terrington, who struggled with survivor's guilt for the remainder of his life and discussed the accident with his family "nearly every day.

He retired from flying at age 52, after 32 years as a pilot, becoming a counsellor for elderly people dealing with depression and loneliness.

[8] He continuously attended the annual memorial service at Manchester Airport for the flight's victims, remaining concerned that all lessons learned from the accident should be fully implemented in practice.

[9][10] The surviving cabin crew, Arthur Bradbury and Joanna Toff, and two members of the Manchester Airport Fire Service, Fireman Samuel Lyttle and Fireman Eric Arthur Westwood, were all awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal, and the two flight attendants who died, Sharon Ford and Jacqui Urbanski, received the same award posthumously.

Firemen Lyttle and Westwood also displayed outstanding bravery and disregard for their own safety when they mounted the wing to rescue passengers.

[12] In 2010, this accident was reconstructed for a season-9 episode of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation) entitled "Panic on the Runway" or "Manchester Runway Disaster", showing computer simulations of the accident, as well as interviews with Captain Terrington, survivors, and the air crash investigators.