Originally Posted by alanh
Anyway, I don't know of any all engines out failure on a twin that would have been helped by an extra engine or two. You don't get a failure of two. You get either one, or all regardless of the number. (However, there have been 747 engine failures where one engine took out the adjacent engine on the wing.)
Actually, I do know of one. 737 in the US took birds down both engines at around 4-5000 ft. Had to shut down one engine immediately - it simply couldn't continue. In any other situation, would have shut down the other too, as it was in extreme distress - but of course, they've just shut down one, they did everything they could to keep the other going, and managed not to lose it too, making a one-engined emergency diversion. If that plane had been a 3 or 4 engined plane, it's likely not all engines would have been affected - and I bet the pilots would have loved to have some more engines, when faced with trying to nurse a poorly engine which they would normally have shut down, to continue flying.