Not quite the same but had a most excellent delayed 747 service DME-LHR, Christmas eve of 2013. Captain and crew came out to make an announcement in the gate area and were smart enough to line up someone to translate to Russian, then went off to the lounge to speak to the chaps there. I was tentatively rebooked on Swiss via GVA but in the end the predicted multiple hours of repairs to the flaps ended up as about 1 hour (god I love Russian engineering). But the professionalism has stuck with me to this day