[Paleo Conservative]

Unless you are certain that the failure is isolated to the engine and won't cause malfunctions elsewhere, the most responsible course of action is to land ASAP.

To land ASAP would require dumping fuel for a couple of hours to get down to maximum landing weight. An alternative to dumping fuel would have been to continue on to Chicago, Toronto or New York and switch planes. There are plenty of airports to divert to along that route in case more problems arose.

[jpsb]

Seems to me this should be handled by the Brits, it was Brithish airways and the plane was in no immediate danger. thanks for the ping. Boeing builds very good airplanes.

[FreePaul]

Don't they fly a great circle route? I don't think that would take them across the US.

[carl in alaska]

I don't think it takes a couple of hours to dump fuel. There was a situation about twenty years ago when an Eastern Airlines mechanic in Miami forgot to reinstall oil seals in all three engines in a Lockheed L-1011. The oil was quickly burned up in all three engines and the pilot made a rapid emergency landing back in Miami. As I recall, the plane was only in the air for about 20 minutes and dumped fuel on the way home while over the Atlantic. I don't know if they dumped all the fuel, but they landed safely back in Miami.

I think this plane should have dumped fuel in the Atlantic and landed somewhere on the east coast for repairs. Considering that they didn't know for sure that the problem was isolated in one engine, it was reckless to continue on to Great Britain.