It might be Ramadan, 45deg in the shade and a bit sandy but I am sure I didn’t imagine a post from ‘35yearpilot’. Why the delete?
At the end of the day, the aircraft landed safely with nil injuries. Richard is hailed a hero, makes a motza, has become the darling of the media and maybe the next Flight Centre Captain, who knows? All the kudos, success and motza to him.
Events like these are such important learning tools and there are a few very important factors and considerations worth discussing here. If I had the chance to interview Richard, this is what I would ask;
Richard thanks for joining us…
Q. If you had the chance to do it all again, what would you do differently?
Q. I read in an Airbus safety report that it is strongly recommended that you be on the ground following a fire on board within 15mins, red LAND ASAP within 60mins and amber LAND ASAP within 180mins. From the ATSB report it took 50 mins to complete all checklists and total event time was 109mins. Is that correct?
Q. From the ATSB report; engine two had a fire warning then exploded, you were unable to establish if both fire agents had been discharged, engines one and four were in degraded mode, engine three in alternate mode, you had a severe fuel leak, it was obvious that there was serious damage to the wing, hydraulics and electrical systems. Given the previous question, were did landing sit in the level of priorities?
Q. From the ATSB report; given all of the failures which obviously resulted in a large landing factor and approach speed (166kts), the computer calculated that you had only 100 remaining of the 4000m available. What would have your decision been if the computer said you required greater than 4000m?
Q. Did the QF 001 runway overrun in BKK factor in the decision process?
Q. There was a considerable level of experience and resource available in the cockpit (SO, FO and two CC). Given that you had available; gear down, flap 3, reverse on #3, antiskid, max braking and 4000m of runway, do you think that there was an over analysis of the situation and a mentality of “we can’t screw this up like QF 001 did” rather than prioritise the LAND ASAP and real possibility of the wing falling off or loss of control?
Richard is more than welcome to give actual answers here on Pprune. 
Last edited by MASTEMA; 25th Jul 2012 at 12:07.