Evan,
Rockhound back. I just remembered a book that might interest your friends and their son: London-Sydney (From the Flight Deck No. 8) by Philip J. Birtles. Ian Allan, 1993. It describes, in pretty fair detail, BA Flight 011 in a 747-400. The routing was Belgium-Germany-Czechoslovakia-Romania-Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India-Thailand-Malaysia-SIN. Not quite the great circle route but still perhaps valid. I'm not in any way connected with SIA but I don't believe they overfly Russia on this route. Anyway, if any of your friends are interested in long-haul airline flying, they will enjoy this book (and others in the series).
Hope this helps.
Rockhound