@ Eau de Boeing
Fact is that if with 2 or 4 donkeys, with that kind of failure, you'd have ended up at the same place.
That's what my jab was intended for: With all that bragging of being able to continue with 3 out of 4 donkeys, these fans forget that 90% of failures that force diversions are not related to the 2 or 4 question. Therefore my open question about the intelligence of continuing for long stretches over regions with airports as displayed! Especially with a behemouth that has limitations about the s#!t holes it can approach and the capabilities to deal with such a number of souls stranded, not to mention the support capabilities.
Additionally, take the statistics of inflight returns, diversion due to tech issues of the biggest ME whale operator compared to the other fleet and you come up with some stunning statistics. And then take the amount of units parked at any time at the maint hangar of both fleets and you'll come up with almost 10% for the super and 4% of the main fleet. These numbers should calm down the enthusiasm of "super"ior capability of this product.
It only cooks with the same "Eau" as the other flying cousins and should be considered that way. If we'd consider any components failure to extended operation certification, at this very moment the A380 would maybe have a 120' ticket, with its inflight incidents. It's a typical QED.