What if that uncontrollable fire occurs half way across the Pacific is it better to do a controlled ditching whilst the aircraft is still flyable, or hope that the fire will blow itself out before the wing is burned through ????
The engines on a B-747 are designed to separate at the pylon mounts and rotate over the wing under certain circumstances - but uncontrollable fire was never mentioned as one of them.
I know what actions I would have taken under the those circumstances - fortunately I never had to make that decision.
What would you do?