Plane fire drama sparks man to learn to fly

A man who vowed never to get back in an aircraft after an engine caught fire on his return from holiday overcame his fear by learning to fly - and then built himself a flight simulator.

Tim Procter, 58, from Somersham in Cambridgeshire, said the Boeing 737's engine exploded over Italy in 1988.

Before the days of mobile phones, people were writing their goodbye notes, he said, but thankfully the plane managed to land safely.

Years later he tried a flying lesson, became "hooked", and now has his own 737 flight simulator business.

"Before this experience [in 1988], I used to really enjoy flying and would even go on holiday just for the pleasure of being on an aircraft," Mr Procter said.

"Coming back from Corfu we were just over the Alps in Italy and there was a huge explosion that we could all hear and feel.

"When we looked out of the window on the right-hand side, the engine was just a big ball of flames. It was not the sight you want to see."

Although the flames went out, there was a secondary explosion and another fire, he said.

"It felt like forever, but it didn't take too long before the pilots had dealt with the situation and fire extinguishers built into the engine were deployed, and they successfully put the fire out."

People on board were frantically writing to their loved ones, he said.

"It was way before mobile phones, so people got pens and paper out and were writing goodbye notes. We just thought we were finished, and that was it," he explained.

"We didn't think we'd recover from it - it was the noises, the vibration and the way the aircraft was behaving.

"When we eventually got back to England, I vowed I am never, ever, ever going to set foot on another aeroplane.

"But eventually my craze for going skiing got the better of me, so I decided I had to do something about it."

Seven years after the Corfu flight, he took a step towards conquering his fear with a flight in a Cessna at Sibson airfield, near Peterborough.

"We took off and did quite a few circuits and I absolutely loved it," Mr Procter said.

"That was the beginning of the journey. I was so hooked and excited that I signed up for lessons and got right up to the point where I could fly the aircraft on my own."

It took a while for Mr Proctor to build his own version of a 737 cockpit simulator, at a spa business he and his wife run.

He said he gained qualifications enabling him to instruct other people in simulators, but admitted it was "a bit quirky" to have a flight simulator at a spa.

"It is a full-scale 1:1, 737-800 simulator... and many of the parts in the cockpit are from real aircraft that I've sourced from aircraft scrapyards," he explained.

His wife Emma, added: "When Tim first said about this, I thought it was a crazy idea, but it has blown me away."

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