Originally Posted by
Aluminium shuffler
Lomapaseo (and parabellum),
I'm aware that the cabin didn't breach, but how could the crew have possibly known that it wouldn't? Look at how quickly the cabins have breached in most comparable situations, including Okinawa, Manchester, and the most recent case on the same type... To sit there and do nothing with a raging fire is extraordinary negligence. Had the fire penetrated, there is no way they could have evacuated everyone. It was blind luck that nobody was lost as a result of this failure to make a decision.
The crew probably knew it wouldn't as the fire crew outside would have reported that the fire was at the engine and outboard and all smoke and fire was blowing away from the fuselage. They may even have added advice not to evacuate to give them full access to put the fire out. The examples you quote are precisely the opposite with fire being blown onto the fuselage.