The cases where this happened earlier involved 747’s flying over Indonesia (and a case over Alaska). In one Indonesian incident, all four 747 engines shut down at around 37,000 feet altitude I believe, and the plane sank powerless to below 10,000 feet before the crew managed to even start to get one of the engines restarted.
A point that should be remembered is that most of the planes flying the Atlantic route today are TWO-engined, and the great-circle routes take them up into the North Atlantic or farther north.
My wife was trying to get to Amsterdam yesterday and her flight was cancelled; she is trying again today. I for one am willing to grant them the benefit of the doubt. As someone who has spent a lot of time out on that part of the ocean, I can say with some certainty that there are not a lot of emergency airstrips out there.
Been there often and concur.