I was also a passenger on this flight. How serious the incident was depends on where you were sitting. If you were on the right hand side of the plane facing backwards (and thus unable to see the engine or the smoke moving down the cabin from the front) it was a non event. If you were on the left side, able to see the engine and the smoke it must have been much more exciting.
BA, at all levels, were superb. The crew staying in the lounge and chattingwith the passengers after the event was much appreciated. I don't think they had to, they just felt it was the right thing to do. Both the pilots and BA management were very open as to what happened and the logic of how they responded.
As to the lessons learnt, many of the passengers were from the oil industry, where near miss reporting and post incident analysis of how to do better is a way of life. As one of the BA managers commented, 'we practice this every six months, but it happens so rarely for real that we would appreciate any comments you have on how we did'. I think BA did as well as anybody could reasonably have done on the day, but I also think they are big enough to learn any lessons that are there to be learnt. For me the head count was a non issue, because they went throughthe plane before they dsembarked - they knew everyone was out. I also have some comments, and I'll give them to BA direct. But overall, I rate BA more highly now than I did before this incident.