An heart attack brought down BA038 .... analogy!
Warning: I'm non-professional; not crew, not engineer - just scientist guest and thanks.
A light hearted start -
the similarity of this accident with a plaque induced heart attack is interesting. Energy giving substance (food/fuel) contains substances (fats/water) that can clog and narrow energy channels (arteries/fuel lines) with potentially damaging substances (plaque/ice). Under certain circumstances these substances can break free and block the delivery of the energy substance (blood/fuel) to the engine (heart/turbine).
Quite rightly, doctors do advise the avoidance, or limitation, of the damaging substance (fats etc.) from human diets because that is the right philosophical and practical approach. However, doctors also carry out remedial action (stent insertions etc.) to remove damaging blockages, this being the equivalent of the 777/RR FOHE ice melting action.
The point of this analogy is doctors do not just concentrate on the remedial action (stent) and ignore the harmful effects of ingesting fats etc.; they study the whole system and try to recommend actions that avoid the critical moment (heart attack/turbine roll-back).
Surely this is the philosophy that the aircraft industry should follow and it is this that the AAIB is strongly advocating. That is, launch research programmes to fully understand water/ice in fuel and then make sure future aircraft systems are safer.
Of course, there is always a tension between the guardians of safety and commercial organisations - it has ever been so - and this, it seems to me, is evident in the words the AAIB use in the latest interim report.
I do hope the industry makes the effort to use modern investigative tools to fully understand the fuel it uses, to find actions that remove the danger of blockage and not just rely on the life saving operation of melting the ice!
Which brings me to observe that a 777/RR could experience more than one ice blockage event in a single flight. I hope no 777/RR pilots have been given the impression that if they experience a roll back following the step climb etc. and then follow the new SOP to melt that ice, that they will not have a recurrence on the same flight. Nor should pilots assume that if there is no roll back, following the step climbs etc., that there will not be a future roll back during that flight. You may be shouting that the probability of such outcomes is very low - maybe, but my point is that no one knows, so don't assume anything!
My vote would be to ground the fleet until the FOHE fix is in place. Why? Because I'm a coward when it comes to using my statistical bravery to risk other people's lives!
Regards, Tanimbar