Newfoundglory you wrote
Could wheels up have been the best outcome for this though? IIRC the BA 777 at LHR had a massive fuel leak because the landing gear punctured the fuel tanks when it crashed?
The fuel tanks were not punctured in the LHR accident. Fuel was coming out through the fuel pipes to the engines. If you are crashing on land it is always best to have the gear down. If the gear breaks off it cushions the impact. We are taught that it is even better to have just one undercarriage leg down even a strut with no wheels on it (that would make a real mess of the runway) than to land totally gear up. If the gear had been down on this aircraft the likely possibilities would have been:
1) It stayed on the ground and would have been brought to a stop.
2) It touched the ground and bounced into the air and climbed away.
I cannot think of any situation in a windshear incident close to the ground where it is better to have the gear up than down. I remember an incident at LHR many years ago when a Trident landing on 23 hit strong windshear at 100 feet and tried to goaorund. The Captain raised the nose and put on power which came on just as the plane touched down quite smoothly, the Captain elected to close the throttles and stayed on the ground.