I guess all those here, only jondc9 it seems, suggesting the BA crew should have dumped fuel and landed at LAX will be campaigning for all ETOPS flying to cease and indeed for DC10/L1011/B727/DA50/900 etc flights to be limited to always operating within 400nm of a suitable alternate?
I mean we can't have aeroplanes flying over the Atlantic on three engines can we...even when 1000s of flight a week happen on two?
I have flown a couple of different 4 engined aircraft, turboprop & jet...a single engine failure in such an aircraft is a complete non event...for gods sake P3 mil operators shut engines down to increase loiter time.
Boeing are very succinct in what qualifies as reason to 'land at the nearest suitable' airport and 1 engine out in a 4 engined aeroplane is not on the list.
The media is not qualified to comment and neither would be most employees at the FAA. For that reason alone their possible views after the fact will never come into my decision making processes.
The crew on the day made a very safe and correct decision...end of story.
Edit: jonc when in a hole best to stop digging.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 9th Jan 2007 at 05:54.