Agree with Smudger.
England is a small place and the difference in time between going to one airport or another is very little. As I doubt there is a specific checklist on the Q400 for “birdstrike to spinner with part of it coming off”, the crew would have wanted to diagnose the problem(s), get some options together then sort out a plan of action. As it wasn't a time-critical scenario (stabilised, precautionary) expending a little mental effort to make the handling of the incident as easy as possible would have been a great idea. If it’s going to take you X amount of time to prepare the aircraft, crew and passengers for an approach and landing, why not spend those X minutes to get to the airfield that offers the best mix of facilities and weather?
I don’t know what the OEI crosswind limits are for the type but to go somewhere that was gusting 30kts+ across the runway in the wet as opposed to 12kts straight down the strip (and a longer strip as well) would raise my eyebrows far more than a decision to carry on for another 5-10 minutes on one engine. The one shut down had not failed, it is important to note.
From what I see it was an interesting technical issue, handled in a competent manner by the crew. What more do you want?
Last edited by FullWings; 14th Nov 2014 at 15:06.