Losing all thrust shortly after takeoff is a particularly nasty emergency. Pilots of single-engine airplanes talk about the impossible turn for a reason. It’s really closer to a 270° turn than a 180° turn and requires aggressive maneuvering at low altitude to avoid a stall-spin accident, which has claimed many lives. Unless the pilot is particularly proficient at the maneuver, common advice is to plan on landing straight ahead until reaching 1,000 feet AGL.
Having multiple engines makes it not twice as safe but thousands of times safer, at least with respect to losing all thrust. (Multi-engine aircraft have other ways to kill you.) A multi-engine turbine aircraft — turbine engines being far more reliable than pistons — is so unlikely to lose all thrust, i.e., in all engines simultaneously, that they didn’t bother training for it. This worst-case scenario happened anyway.
The Southwest incident took place in the flight levels. Altitude is insurance and gives lots of time to consider options. The airplane still had thrust from one engine so may have been capable of (slow) climbs and certainly of level flight. The big unknown in the moment was whether the airframe would hold together, so they still wanted to get on the ground as soon as possible.
Given the choice of emergencies, one would take the Southwest circumstances easily. Both pilots did great work managing terrible situations that could have ended up much worse. Loss of all lives on board was in the realm of possibility for both.
Having multiple engines makes it not twice as safe but thousands of times safer, at least with respect to losing all thrust. (Multi-engine aircraft have other ways to kill you.) A multi-engine turbine aircraft — turbine engines being far more reliable than pistons — is so unlikely to lose all thrust, i.e., in all engines simultaneously, that they didn’t bother training for it. This worst-case scenario happened anyway.
The Southwest incident took place in the flight levels. Altitude is insurance and gives lots of time to consider options. The airplane still had thrust from one engine so may have been capable of (slow) climbs and certainly of level flight. The big unknown in the moment was whether the airframe would hold together, so they still wanted to get on the ground as soon as possible.
Given the choice of emergencies, one would take the Southwest circumstances easily. Both pilots did great work managing terrible situations that could have ended up much worse. Loss of all lives on board was in the realm of possibility for both.