It's absolutely bizarre that there is an incident in which no one was injured and there are people on this thread castigating the crew.
Its absolutely bizarre that anyone thinks this irrational statement contains a single drop of logic. So no matter how rash or incorrect the action it is justified if no one gets hurt, is it? Apply this "rationale" to Russian Roulette please.
Also note that throughout the entire video footage there is NO smoke coming from either forward or aft doors, meaning the fire did not spread inside the cabin.
Not sure what that tells us, watch the China Airlines 737 fire at Osaka(?) - the fuselage finally gives way and the aft section collapses to the ground yet there is no smoke from the doors.
In the crew's defence they managed to park it, intentionally or not, with the fire downwind of the fuselage. It would be useful to know exactly where they stopped. Was it on the runway? Were they on runway QDM or did they make a turn? The videos suggest they might have done
Was this a genuine fastball or was time available beforehand to prepare with the crew for all possible eventualities
Blimey, no one knows yet but in the event of a fuel leak (if that is what they thought it was) you'd certainly be prepared for a fire on the ground if only because that is the inevitable sequel to dealing with that scenario in the sim. Fire would be at the forefront of your mind. It seems likely that the fire only broke out during the ground roll so in that sense, probably a fastball but given the above you'd expect them to be prepared for it. They had 2 hrs to think about the possibilities after all. If they weren't aware of a fuel leak then it probably was a really nasty fastball, though it's one every pilot should be prepared for every time he lands.
With a fire like that I'd still have initiated an evacuation the moment I'd stopped, as I suspect would every other European and American pilot without exception. Its what we're expected to do with an uncontained (ie not internal engine or perhaps brakes) fire or significant smoke of unknown or uncontrollable origin, as seen at LHR yesterday. It is drummed into us throught training, fire = evacuate. There have to be very, very special circumstances for this to be varied and with the fire downwind of the fuselage they seem to have been in an ideal position to get the pax out. After 2 hrs of thinking time just sitting there for minutes, lights on and with a big fire raging under an entire wing just looks like a rabbit-in-the-headlights scenario to me. The opportunity to evacuate was clearly there, they did not take it. Saying that no one was hurt in retrospect in no way justifies that peculiar situation. A different flick of fortunes tail and we'd have had another Saudia on our hands, that much is very clear.
Finally, does one usually ask "permission" to dump fuel rather than just doing it, or just telling them you're doing it?