By paweas If you'd bothered to read the book you would realize that BA went to great lengths to avoid all publicity of the accident and the events surrounding it regardless of the media coverage.Peter was told not to make any statement to the press despite some of the nonsense that was printed about him.
I have to agree with this statement, I have read the book as well, and have followed this thread since it started. It is painfully clear when coupling what was said on this thread, in the British media and the silence from BA publicly seemed to have left Peter & Maria dangling on a hook with the media circling around looking for an angle that may sell newspapers! What has been said time and time again on this thread 30 seconds is not long to dot all the iii's & cross the ttt's but still it was rumoured that Pete froze which is clearly not the case at all.
Aviation's a very small world
Yep it is, and it didn't take too long to find out that Peter was a dedicated 777 Captain who was loyal to BA, his company that employed him for 20 years, he took the advice from the appropriate departments no questions asked way before he decided to write his book. As time went by he realised he needed BA to assist him with a short statement to clear up what amounted to become an unbearable set of rumours that lead to PB taking VR. We can all offer our personal views whether Pete should have or shouldn't have taken VR but at the end of the day none of us really knew what Pete was feeling except of course Pete himself as well as the impact on his family.
I don't think Pete and Maria ever said a bad word in public about BA throughout this ordeal so when he announced he was writing a book I thought "well here goes, he is going to dump on them. As it turns out he didn't but together with his wife wrote a book that really is a wake up call to the industry. I learned a lot from reading it as I too have three kids of a similar age as the Birkills. I think there is something for everyone in its contents.