[FreedomCalls]

What you are missing is that the engine did not "fail." It was shut down. They contemplated restarting it even, but decided to continue on with it shut down after consulting the mechanics at BA. There was no "molten metal" shooting out the back. No blade failure. It was apparently a simple "compressor stall" which to the uninitiated looks a lot worse that it is. Flames will shoot out the front and back at the same time and the engine will show an increased EGT momentarily. They could have restarted it, but shut it down and continued on instead. It's not an uncommon occurrence.

Here's a video of a series of compressor stalls. It looks and sounds a lot worse than it is. Click on the image to see the movie.

[Gunrunner2]

The engine DID fail. It spit fire out the back. Shutting down the engine was to remove the fire source.

Having had a few compressor stalls myself, it IS serious. (And compressor stalls have fire shoot out the front as well as the back).

There is no such thing as a "simple compressor stall." After a compressor stall you have no idea what damage has been done or if it had thrown a blade or not. You simply don't know.

Compressor stalls cause significant damage, and it could have been from bird ingestion to material failure. . .you have no idea. What you do know is damage was done and you have no idea what other damage might have been done as well.

The prudent thing is to abort and land.

It is a good thing you do not fly. . .but then again, if you did, and if you ever experienced a compressor stall or loss of an engine during a critical part of flight, you would have a whole different perspective.

Fact is, the pilots made the wrong decision. Period.