Originally Posted by 18-Wheeler
The poor chaps in Europe may well have forgotten this, hit the switch and run the flaps, thus leading to the LE flaps not coming out on one side and so the plane uncontrollably rolling over.
What killed the poor chaps, is that they did everything in a rush. They did not have time to asses their situation, and do checklists i order, which led to assimetry, reducing airspeed too fast etc.
All this is because engines took with them the fire detection loops, resulting in a false fire warning. Since the crew was not aware that the engines had seperated, and the information was not relayed to them by the tower (who knew of the seperation), they believed an actual fire burning that could not be extinguished. That was the reason they tried to put the aircraft on the ground as soon as possible, without getting organized first.
Without the so-called "fire", they might have kept going, assesing the situation, and getting the very reliable 747, which at the point of flight the failure occured, was very survivable.