Interesting piece on BBC Radio 4 just now. Their presenter happened to be at Swanwick yesterday recording a piece about future London airports, and asked the top man there about the decision to bring an aircraft in difficulty back to Heathrow over a large populated area with limited options, rather than go to say Stansted.
Controller chief's answer was that ultimately it is the pilot and crew who make the decisions, and they (ATC) are there to assist the crew. So presumably the implication is that ATC cannot "insist" that an aircraft diverts away from a populated area in case --in this instance--the crew might have found themselves committed to a Heathrow approach and the other engine failed.
Hell of a responsibility on the crew, maybe unfairly so.
Last edited by EGCA; 25th May 2013 at 07:04.