[trimbo]

> That said BA earned a hell of a black mark when it chose to divert to Heathrow rather than Stansted or even Gatwick when its engine was on fire

After declaring an emergency, if they landed at Heathrow, that was at the pilot's discretion or due to limiting factors like runway length at Gatwick and the weight of their plane. The article is light on detail but they circled over Kent as well, so the pilots must have thought it was safe after shutting down the engine.

[wtch98]

In the process dropping debris over one of the largest cities in Europe.

Gatwick and Stansted can take any plane just as easily as Heathrow, but has less on ground resources to fix the plane.

[mpalfrey]

Runway length at LGW is OK for a 777.

I'd guess they knew it was safe and it's easier to deal with a plane full of pax at your originating airport than diverting to STN (where there's no BA ops) or LGW (BA have ops here so could have worked).

[darrenf]

> STN (where there's no BA ops)

BA did fly from STN in 2017, at the time of the incident - they served short haul tourist routes like PMI, AGP, FLR, IBZ.