Airbus 380 loses engine, goes 5000 miles

[tdracer]

With 4 engines there is a higher probability that you will still have an engine producing thrust. At least that is what BA and KLM found.

BA 9: British Airways Flight 9 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KLM 867: KLM Flight 867 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I won't bother to read what's in the Wiki article because I have first hand knowledge: In both BA and KLM, all four engines failed and quit producing thrust - at pretty close to the same time (in the case of KLM I was involved in the investigation).

In both cases the flight crew was able to get engines restarted after they dropped out of the ash cloud, but make no mistake - all four engines failed. Not really a valid 2 vs. 4 data point.