More Than Points

Would you want to continue flying after seeing something like this out of your airplane window?

If not, too bad – because the pilots decided to continue forward with the trans-pacific flight anyway!

From the Guardian:

Air traffic controllers monitoring a British Airways jumbo jet were stunned at the pilot’s decision to try to “get as far as we can” after an engine caught fire on takeoff, a transcript of discussions between the plane and the control tower revealed.

The controllers in Los Angeles expected the four-engine Boeing 747 to turn around but, after taking advice from BA’s operations base, the pilot carried on towards London. He told air traffic control: “We just decided we want to set off on our flight-plan route and get as far as we can.”

The picture doesn’t go with the news story but it gives you a visual as to what it might look like.