The pilot was described as 'a hero' for his calm handling of the situation

He narrowly avoided death in the 1980s after rolling his MG Midget

Captain Chris Henkey was due to fly one more aircraft for British Airways

A hero British Airways pilot who saved almost 200 passengers and crew when the engine of his jet caught fire narrowly escaped death several years ago when he crashed his vintage MG Midget in the 1980s.

Captain Chris Henkey, 63, was taking off on one of his final flights as a pilot when his left engine set alight on the runway at a Las Vegas' McCarran Airport on Tuesday evening.

It was his first serious incident in more than 40 years as a pilot for British Airways, but not his first brush with death: a car crash a number of years ago had left him disfigured, one close friend revealed.

Today his family declared he did a 'bloody good job' to save all the 157 passengers on board and revealed Mr Henkey had texted them to say there had been a 'massive explosion' but he was safe.

His chiropractor daughter Charley, 26, spoke of her 'pride' after her father managed to stop his Boeing 777 bound for London Gatwick in just nine seconds, while long term partner Lenka Nevolna, spoke of her relief.

14 passengers were injured and those on board described their terror after hearing a loud bang and seeing flames engulf the wing before smoke poured into the cabin.

Hero: Pilot Chris Henkey managed to avert disaster when the engine caught fire on the runway on Tuesday

Destroyed: This is the first picture to emerge following the aftermath of the fire which engulfed the engine

The British Airways flight bound for London Gatwick was loaded with passengers on the tarmac at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas when it burst into flames - just before it was supposed to take off

Terrified travelers on other flights captured the plumes of smoke billowing from the Boeing 777. Emergency services rushed to the aircraft from all sides of the airport - the 9th busiest in the United States

The plane was travelling at 90mph when the engine exploded - but the pilot stopped it within nine seconds

Passengers were left stranded on the tarmac after they fled the plane. Some managed to grab their luggage before they were evacuated

Audio of Mr Henkey's Mayday call reveals how the captain with 40 years of flying experience remained calm and collected as he realised a fire had taken hold.

He asked the Las Vegas control tower to send fire engines and told them he was evacuating the British Airways 777, which took just three minutes.

'I'm still in shock about it all but I am very proud of him,' Ms Nevolna said.

'I am so pleased he is alright and just glad that they hadn't gone into the air.'

His daughter Charley said her father is in his final days as a pilot and was planning to join her on holiday in Barbados next week.

She said: 'I was just heading out to dinner with my best friend when I got a text from Dad saying there had been a massive explosion on the plane but that he was OK.

'I couldn't sleep all night, because I was just waiting to get a call from him. I think the most emotional part is that I am just so proud of him.'

'This was supposed to be one of his last flights. I just hope he gets to fly again before he retires so that he ends on a high. He was supposed to be joining me in Barbados on Saturday for the end of the holiday, but I'm not sure now what is going to happen.'

Speaking to the Guardian, his ex-wife Marnie said he would 'always' be a hero in her eyes.

She said: 'He is safe and happy... He did a bloody good job.'

The Boeing 777-200 was forced to abort its takeoff and evacuate all passengers after an engine caught fire

Lenka Nevolna, left, described her partner Chris Henkey, right, as a hero for saving the lives of the passengers

The damage to the plane is also visiable in this picture. The fire has burned through the hull

Stills from a video show the evacuation slides deployed at each end of the plane as the smoke rises. Passengers said there was a panicked rush for the exits when the fire started

This picture led people to question where people's priorities were as they left the burning plane

Captain Henkey's partner Lenka Nevolna said: 'He's a hero, he's a great man.'

Speaking at the couple's home in Padworth, Berkshire after arriving home from work at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, she added: 'He has great generosity.

'I am very shocked but glad no-one was hurt and that he will be fine. He acts very cool under pressure, he is very calm and a real professional.

'He phoned me straightaway after the fire and told me what happened and I was just relieved he was okay.

'He is due to retire soon and unfortunately no-one could have predicted that this would happen. I am looking forward to getting him home and getting him back.

'I don't know what will happen next and I don't really remember much of what he said had happened because i was in shock.

'I didn't worry when I saw it on TV because I knew he was safe as he phoned me almost immediately.'

Ms Nevlona, pictured, said Captain Henkey asked her to marry him in April while on a trip to Jersey

Ms Nevolna, pictured, said it 'was a miracle the plane didn't explode' after the engine caught fire on Tuesday

Captain Henkey asked Ms Nevolna to marry him in April. 'He proposed while we were in Jersey and he had actually arranged in secret two have two of our friends meet us out there!

'He is out of hospital now but he was in originally for smoke inhalation.

'Whenever he flies I am always in contact with him before a flight, sending him my well wishes and texts and generally keeping in touch.

'He first phoned me last night at around 1am just after it happened. I switched on my TV straight away and watched the news unfold. I was horrified but it is a miracle that the plane didn't explode. I'm so glad he is safe.

'The car crash he was involved with was in the 80's, that was a long time ago.'

One side of the plane was damaged in the fire. The evacuation slides are still deployed as firefighters investigate the area in the aftermath of the blaze

Firefighters stand by the plane to assess the damage the fire caused. A preliminary investigation suggested the left engine suffered a 'catastrophic' failure

A friend and former pilot said Mr Henkey would have gone into 'automatic mode' the moment the engine caught fire.

Mr Garner, aged 68 years, from Guildford, Surrey, said: 'There wouldn't have been any panic.

''Once an incident happens on board there's always plenty of adrenaline but never panic.

'All pilots are trained on exactly what to do. They undergo training every year for evacuations of this kind.'

He said Mr Henkey - described as a 'sociable guy' by neighbours - had made a full recovery and was fit to return to the cockpit for his final flights.

But then he revealed this was not Mr Henkey's only brush with death.

'Chris and I were good friends when I lived in Wokingham. He's an all-round good guy. I remember how he survived the road crash, he was in an MG Midget, I think,' he said.

'He was quite badly disfigured but after a long period away he was fully recovered to fly again. It was one of the reasons he let his hair grow longer.'

But Mr Henkey had never had an accident while flying before, neighbour Roger Beale said.

'He has never ever had any incidents in his whole career. Just recently we were talking about his many years as a pilot and he had said nothing had ever happened to him.'

BOEING 777: THE SECOND SAFEST AEROPLANE IN THE WORLD The Boeing 777 which caught fire on the runway in Las Vegas today is the second safest aeroplane in the world, according to official statistics. According to FearofFlying.com, it has one accident per 18million hours of flying time. But only one of those has been fatal in its 19-year history, leading to the loss of three lives out of the 307 aboard the Asiana Airlines jet. On that occasion, the plane landed short of the runway in San Francisco. However, the Boeing 777 was also the plane used by Malaysian Airways, which had one of its planes shot down over the Ukraine, while another disappeared. Airlines like the plane because it is capable of flying extremely long distances thanks to two giant engines. Each engine is so massive that a row of at least five coach seats could fit inside it. By having just two engines, the plane burns through less fuel than four-engine jets, like the Boeing 747, which it has essentially replaced. Malaysia Airlines did have an incident in August 2005 with a 777 flying from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city. While flying 38,000 feet (11,580 meters) above the Indian Ocean, the plane's software incorrectly measured speed and acceleration, causing the plane to suddenly shoot up 3,000 feet (915 meters). The pilot disengaged the autopilot and descended and landed safely back in Perth. A software update was quickly made on planes around the world Advertisement

Family and friends feeling of relief was clearly shared by relieved passengers like Jacob Steinberg, who revealed there was applause when the pilot emerged.

Without him, the football and tennis writer suggested in the same paper, it wasn't worth thinking about what would have happened next.

'He said he had been flying for years and had never seen anything like that,' Steinberg wrote.

'He was speaking to a few passengers later and all the colour had drained from his face.

'There were not enough words in the world for us to express our gratitude.'

Captain Henkey is understood to have 42 years flying experience, and used to run the Hatchgate Inn, in Reading, with his ex-wife.

Writing on Twitter earlier, Steinberg had revealed: 'Was asleep as the plane took off. Came to a crashing halt. Smell of smoke. Initially told to stay seated, then shout of evacuate.

'Could smell and see smoke but was on other side of plane. One person said fire melted a couple of windows.

'They opened the back door and slide went down and smoke started coming in plane, followed by mad dash to front. A lot of panic.'

Dominic Worthington, a British passenger travelling business class, described a 'slight jolt, then a bang' before the plane came to a stop.

He said: 'We had a matter of seconds before it could have escalated into something very serious.'

He was also full of praise for the pilot, who appears to have been more concerned for his passengers' safety rather than his own.

'He [the pilot] was glad him and his crew were able to get everybody off with a few bumps a bruises, which I think is absolutely outstanding and they deserve full credit.'

Firefighters stand atop a ladder next to the doors of the plane after the fire had been put out. The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial airline in the world

Another plane takes off the in the background as the charred fuselage of the British Airways aircract sits on the tarmac at McCarran Airport. Three runways were shut after the incident

Alex Crimmens, who was sitting by the wing, told how he feared for his life after hearing a 'massive bang' as they accelerated down the runway.

'Then you could begin to see the flames coming through - you could feel the heat so I moved further into the middle of the plane,' he told the paper.

Mr Crimmens, from Newcastle, was one of the 157 and 13 crew members on board at the time.

Many passengers have said how it was a fear the plane, which was full of fuel, would explode which terrified them the most.

'People just ran to get clear of the plane,' passenger Claire Corrigan said. 'I think it was a fear because the plane was a full fuel load, that it could explode.'

According to preliminary information, the plane experienced a left engine fire on takeoff, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's Pacific Division.

One runway was shut but flights continued to depart on remaining runways as paramedics treated those caught up in the fire.

It took just two minutes for the fire service the reach the burning plane.

Casinos along the Las Vegas Strip can be seen behind the aircraft that suffered a massive engine failure

The Mandalay Bay hotel and the pyramid of the Luxor are seen on the horizon at one end of the strip

Kent Winter, who was on a Delta flight from LAX, told the Daily Mail Online his flight was forced to pull up just before it landed.

He said nobody on-board his flight was informed of what was going on the pilot said on the intercom: 'It looks like someone blew a tire on the runway'.

But pictures of 'dozens' of people walking along the runway with their carry-on bags has angered some on social media.

Terrified travelers on other flights captured the plumes of smoke coming from the Boeing 777 as those on board were forced to jump down inflatable slides and run away from the blaze.

One man, a safety expert, tweeted: 'Woke up to the news of the engine fire on that BA flight in Vegas. But yet again people are taking their bags whilst evacuating! Idiots!'.

@mytripreport wrote: 'Clearly people weren't paying attention to the safety video on the BA 777 - as from the video I've seen, people have their bags with them!

@Ragin_Spice wrote: 'I see passengers jumped down the slides of that BA plane with wheel bags and massive rucksacks. Leave everything and GET OUT.

Another said: 'Those with luggage would take a punch square in the face. Apparently people slowing the evac to grab bags'.

But passenger Steinberg said people should not be too hard on those who grabbed bags.

He said: 'Don't criticise passengers for taking their bags! People go into panic mode in that situation.'

The cause of the fire is not yet known. Experts said it was most likely to have been down to mechanical failure or bird strike, adding that under pressure, components within the left engine such as fan discs or blades could have broken away.

The plane’s engines were made by US firm General Electric.

Passenger Dominic Worthington, a nightclub manager from London, said he heard a loud bang before the plane came to a sudden stop.

Mr Worthington, 35, said: ‘We could see thick black smoke billowing out from either side of the aeroplane. The crew were absolutely superb, they moved everybody to the evacuation doors and we all went down different shoots ... It was pretty scary to be honest with you. We had a matter of seconds, I think, before that could have escalated into something very serious.’

He said that once the passengers were back inside the terminal, Cpt Henkey arrived to explain what had happened and express his gratitude that everyone was safe. BA would not say how many Britons were on the plane – but it is believed they were the majority of passengers.

A passenger on another flight preparing to take off captures the smoke billowing from the plane

High-rise hotels stand in the background as investigators look over the burned-out plane on the runway

The Stratosphere Casino and Tower stands in front of the mountains surrounding Sin City

He was more critical of the lack of information after the passengers were taken to a nearby hotel by bus.

Steinberg revealed they were currently talking to passengers about putting them on other direct flights to London.

The crew's swift reaction has been praised by experts as well, with Julian Bray saying it was 'textbook' - despite the evacuation being slightly slowed by smoke pouring in through the door.

'You can see just how quickly they manage to get the chutes open,' he told MailOnline.

'Everybody seemed to get out very quickly.'

Mr Bray said there were a number of possibilities for what had caused the engine to catch fire - including a blockage, or even a bird strike.

But even if it had failed after they had left the ground, he was confident the pilot would have got everybody to safety.

'It can still fly with only one engine,' he said. 'It would have gone around, landed and everybody would have got off.'

Meanwhile, Richard Aboulafia, an aviation expert at Teal Group, said he did not believe Tuesday's fire was linked to any flaws with the Boeing 777.

'The 777 remains one of the safest forms of transport ever invented,' he said.

'While we don't know about this incident, there have been no significant 777 crashes or fires that resulted from flaws with the aircraft.'

The fuselage of the British Airways flight is blackened by the fire on the tarmac at McCarren Airport

The British Airways plane sits on a runway surrounded by emergency vehicles after the blaze

The long-range jumbo jet has helped connect cities at the far ends of the globe, with flights as long as 16 hours. It is one of the jets most commonly used by British Airways for long-haul flights

A spokesman for British Airways told the Daily Mail Online they were 'continuing to care' for the customers who had been on board, and were organising other flights.

'The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority and we are looking after those who were on board the BA2276 from Las Vegas to London Gatwick following an incident on Tuesday September 8, 2015,' they said in an earlier statement.

'The aircraft, a 777-200 experienced a technical issue as it was preparing for take-off from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

'Our crew evacuated the aircraft safely and the fire was quickly extinguished by the emergency services at the airport.

'157 customers were on board the flight, along with three pilots and 10 cabin crew. A small number of customers and our crew were taken to hospital.

'All customers have been provided with hotel accommodation, and our colleagues are helping them with anything further they require.'

The later statement added: 'The National Transportation Safety Board in the US is conducting an investigation into the incident and we will give them our fullest support.'

A spokesman from Boeing said this afternoon it was 'providing technical assistance to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)'.

The long-range jumbo jet has helped connect cities at the far ends of the globe, with flights as long as 16 hours.

The plane was quickly evacuated. Fourteen people were taken to a local hospital to be treated - mostly for injuries sustained while evacuating the plane