British plane in US smoke scare

Passengers used slides to leave the aircraft

More than 300 passengers and crew aboard a British Airways jet at a US airport were evacuated down emergency slides after smoke filled the cabin.

The Boeing 747 had pulled away from the departure gate at Phoenix, Arizona, en route to London Heathrow when passengers began complaining of smoke.

There were shouts of “fire” and some people panicked but none were seriously injured, eyewitnesses told the BBC.

Fire crews found light smoke but no fire and suspect an electrical problem.

I never realised how fast you can go down those emergency slides – a lot of people, including myself, have little friction burns on their elbows Charles Woolf passenger speaking to the news

The incident occurred at about 2000 local time (0300 GMT) on Friday, said a Phoenix fire official, Capt Shelly Jamison.

About 15 people received minor scrapes and bruises, and one person was taken to hospital with shoulder pain.

Confirming the safe exit of all 298 passengers and 18 crew aboard Flight BA288, British Airways said the aircraft had been evacuated “following the usual procedures”.

‘Professionalism’

Charles Woolf, 16, was sitting at the rear of the plane, waiting to return home to Fareham in the UK after a holiday.

Everything appeared normal as the plane taxied out, he told News, but after it had been waiting about 10 minutes for take-off, “a strange but harsh smell filled the cabin – it made my nose tingle and burned the back of my throat”.

“Some people started to cough, and a few started to worry and panic,” he said.

“After about five minutes, more people started to cough, someone towards the front of the aircraft shouted ‘fire’, the doors of the aircraft opened and the slides were deployed.

“People were pushing a bit to try and get to the exit, but I’d say within 20 seconds of the doors opening I was out of the plane.

“I never realised how fast you can go down those emergency slides – a lot of people, including myself, have little friction burns on their elbows.”

The 16-year-old praised the cabin crew’s professionalism.

US consumer confidence plummets

US consumers are increasingly gloomy about economic prospects

US consumer confidence has unexpectedly dropped to a record low in December, in the face of the US economic slowdown and continuing job cuts.

The index fell to 38, from November’s revised 44.7 figure, though it had been expected to rise.

The dismal job market appears to have outweighed falling oil prices in consumers’ minds, analysts said.

Meanwhile, October house prices in 20 US cities fell by a record yearly rate, according to a key home price survey.

Falling confidence

According to the Conference Board, those respondents saying jobs were “hard to get” rose to 42% in December – up from 37.1% in November, while those claiming jobs were “plentiful” dropped to 6.2% from 8.7%.

The proportion of consumers anticipating an increase in their incomes decreased to 12.7% in December from 13.1% in November.

And those claiming business conditions were “bad” increased to 46% in December from 40.6% in November, while those saying business conditions were “good” declined to 7.7% from 10.1%.

The survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 US households.

Separately, house prices in 20 US cities fell by a record annual rate of 18.04% in October, according to the The S&P/Case-Shiller home price survey.

Record falls

The index shows that prices of homes is continuing to fall across the US with many areas showing record price falls.

David Blitzer, of Standard & Poor’s said that “home prices are back to their March 2004 levels”.

October’s annual fall was more than had been expected by analysts, who had been predicting a 17% drop.

The city which showed the biggest price-fall was Phoenix, where home prices plunged 32.6% in the year to October – followed by Las Vegas, which was down 31.7% and San Francisco, down 31%.

Overall, house prices for the 20 metropolitan areas in the survey fell 18.04% in the year to October, the largest drop since its inception in 2000.

The annual fall in prices for the top 10 metropolitan areas was 19.06%, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

Both indices have now recorded annual declines for 22 consecutive months.

Prices in the 20-city index have dropped more than 23% since their peak in July 2006, while the 10-city index has fallen 25% since its peak in June 2006.

None of the 20 cities saw annual price gains in October – for the seventh consecutive month.

‘Decline slowing’

Wall Street’s reaction to this latest housing survey was initially muted, as November figures on the depressed state of the housing market have already been published.

Last week, figures from the Commerce Department showed that sales of new homes in the US had slowed to their lowest level in 17 years in November, while new home prices had dropped by the biggest amount in eight months.

Tim Ghriskey of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, said this survey was “pretty much right in line with expectations but very depressed”.

“There are signs we believe that the decline in housing prices is slowing and we’re in a bottoming process but clearly this does show that housing prices continue to decline significantly,” he said.

The US housing market is in the worst downturn since the Great Depression as a huge supply of unsold homes, the credit squeeze and record mortgage foreclosures has pushed down home prices.

Economists believe the market will not begin to recover until home prices fall far enough to stimulate demand, which has dropped off precipitously.