Reply to Giant Bird
I know you mean well GB but your reasoning and assumptions, as well as your suggestions are incredibly hindsighted and dare I suggest what I would expect from a desk pilot or civil servant who has an excellent grasp of theory but little of reality.
Two miles out and 600' agl, engines lose power over a residential area and it takes all the skill and concentration of an experienced crew to get the aircraft onto level ground rather than the nearest road embankment or house, and you expect the crew to take time out for a message??? To anyone??? To anywhere????
There may be valid points in your second part about the evacuation order control, but once again I say that they are from the point of view of an observer, not from someone who was there at the time. Perhaps if you could qualify your statements with a statement to the effect that you are an expert crash manager, and when you brought in such and such a plane to a successful crash landing against the odds, you had the ice cool ability to do everything by the book, to the letter and per every last regulation under the cloudy London skies.
Get my point?