Reading some of the comments to what I wrote, made me revisit the atc transcript of sr 111. What a horrible read.
Reading it makes me wish I could help them.
Anyway, at 1:14:18 sr111 declared a pan, last transmission was 1:25:49. That's 11 minutes and 31 secs, not a lot.
At 1:21:59 they were told to turn south (to reach the ocean) for fuel dump. To me this reads as they were flying away from a possible divert airport.
As far as the ba story, it's fair to say there is not enough info to say one thing or the other. I'm sorry for implying they did the wrong thing. It just seems strange that one the one hand the problem is bad enough for ba to divert, and on the other hand it is ok to wait for the fuel to dump. Maybe it was one of those grey areas.
As far as sr111, the only way they could've survived in my opinion is to use the 11min 31s to do an emergency descent, Mmo/Vmo to the nearest strip, road. Not turn south to the shore line to dump fuel.
This I say with a nice cup of coffee in my hand and in the comfort of my own home, no stress, no oxy mask on, no noises, no molten plastic dripping on my head and no fear for my life.
It's anyones guess how we would fare On The Day.
Thanks for your thoughts, it's always good to talk about these things.