See above caveat but I have always maintained that those poor guys in the Kegworth B737 incident would have lit a paraffin lamp if they could find one in the circmstances they found themselves in.
I'm sure Kegworth causes the hair on all pilot's necks to stand up, but it has also always given me a particular
frisson of rather selfish horror. As an engineer, a life long lover of aeroplanes and an interested SLF, I have a recurring image of sitting in that 737, watching the engine spit out its innards. I know enough about aeroplanes and their engines - if you knew my surname, it might make you smile - that I am certain I would have
known that one was not long for active service. My fear is; if I had spoken quietly to the cabin crew and asked them to tell the captain what I had seen ..... would they have believed me or would they have 'not bothered the flight deck in the circumstances'?
Were the crew obliged to land at East Midlands or could they have continued to Belfast? It has always seemed to me that if, at their maximum attained height, they had elected to go on, they would have needed power and thus found out about the genuinely failed engine when it was less critical.
I know 'what if's' are a little pointless, but its the way your mind works.
Roger.