By Patrick Smith

Crying "fire" at 35,000 feet. How the pilot missed his Brussels buffet.

Four engines, three engines; divert or continue on? Our thanks, for want of a better term, to British Airways, whose recent double dose of mechanical trouble provided two straight weeks of stimulating column fodder. To close things out, I've chosen to share a personal account of something that happened about four years ago. Hopefully this offers some firsthand insight into the kind of event that, as a cut-and-dried news blurb, provokes more questions than it answers.