Bannock, thanks for the link, I enjoyed the interview. Vago needs to think his questions through before he gets in front of a camera.
I would like to add one more thought to the 2 vs 4 engine debate that Pontius has covered very well. The more engines you have, the higher the likelihood of having a failure.
As Pontius says, under normal operating conditions, the more engines, the lower the impact of losing one. With engines deliberately shut down the redundancy benefit is lost.
I suppose part of the safety issue can be measured by probabilities. If so, two engined, large aircraft have been cleared to do trains-Atlantic flights with fare-paying passengers on board for many years now. I used to fly over way out over vast oceans in a two engined aircraft. Seemed to work OK. Not many 4 engined ac being designed these days.
I'll butt out now. I'm not a MPA man so I'll leave the comments to the guys that are. I enjoy reading the thread though, especially when the boys get tough! Very entertaining.