Originally Posted by
DYKWIA
Pretty sure if there was an actual emergency, UK ATC would have allowed the landing. From the report, it sounds like they had to shut down one of the 3 engines, so not an immediate "mayday". BA flew a B747 across the Atlantic on 3 engines a few years back.
The article differs from my recollections in some details:
1. There were flames (at least initially; I was in a C seat and could see them) from the outermost port engine; the article doesnt mention the flames.
2. The pilot announced we couldnt land at a UK airport because ATC had walked off the job at noon, and the incident occured a few minutes after noon. The pilot also announced that we would fly over the North Sea to dump fuel.
I'll continue my search for UK and Germany news sources to find a more objective article.