I have recently finished reading the book. I must say I am left with a sense of disappointment. The book is an account of the personal difficulties suffered by the family as a result of the crash , developing into a crisis and affecting even the eldest of their young children. But I am afraid the question that it has brought to my mind is how much of the post-crash events are of their own making and how much of these are down to BA. Is it 10:90, 50:50, 40:60 or any other. Where is that particular display of stiff upper lip, understatement and sang froid which was once so much the conduct expected of a British Captain at times of adversity and crisis. Instead we have a Captain accepting advice to go and get paraletic drunk immediately after such a serious accident, could it not be said that this is yet another display of conformance to the current binge culture. Ofcourse the most important question is the one that his FO posed why did Peter put his name forward for early retirement. The whole issue is one of good judgement and correct decision making at all times.
Even taking account of the time factor this was not the greatest feat of deadsticking an airliner. Let us not forget the Azores Glider, the A330-200 of Air Transit Flight 236. Captain Robert Piche and his FO pulled off the biggest stunt ever in an all engines out at night landing at Lajes Air Base on the tiny rock of Tercia, Azores. I would recommend Robert Poche`s book "Hands on Destiny". It is enlightening. I would be interested to read commentry on the differing backgrounds of the two Captains, institutionilised but in their own particularly different ways.