"Subsequent investigation revealed that the fan cowl doors on both engines were left unlatched during maintenance and this was not identified prior to aircraft departure," inspectors found.
According to the report Airbus issued a safety briefing in July last year warning of the dangers of a cowl door becoming detached after 32 previous incidents, 80 per cent of which had taken place during take off.
"This event has shown that the consequences of fan cowl door detachment are unpredictable and can present a greater risk to flight safety than previously experienced," the report continued.
David Reynolds, the head of safety at the British Airline Pilots Association said: "It is very unfortunate that the cowls were not locked. It is something the engineers to check.
"It is their job to make sure they are closed.
"A pilot's role is to look out for anything obvious, but the only way in which they could have done this by lying on their back underneath the engines, which is not practical."
One pilot, speaking under conditions of anonymity said: "The real story is not went wrong but why it went wrong.
"The deeper story is in maintenance procedures, management and manning levels.
"There are demands to get more and more out of fewer and fewer people and that is across the airline industry as a whole.
"What normally happens is one engineer carries out the maintenance and another qualified engineer checks countersigns it."
"Both should have checked whether the cowl was shut."
Responding to the report, Keith Williams, BA's chief executive, said: "We continue to cooperate fully with the investigation team and can confirm that appropriate initial action has already been taken in accordance with the AAIB's safety recommendation to Airbus.
"We regret we are precluded from releasing or discussing any additional details while the AAIB investigation is ongoing.
"We commend the professionalism of the flight crew for the safe landing of the plane and the cabin crew and pilots for its safe evacuation."
31 May, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNECDFO0GyBPPf17edc7hnikE2nGcQ&url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10092099/Engine-doors-on-stricken-BA-flight-left-open-official-report-finds.html
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