And if it had been a 4 engine plane the same issue would have been present (or even a 24 engine plane). Sadly I can't find the article any more but did read on

And if it had been a 4 engine plane the same issue would have been present (or even a 24 engine plane). Sadly I can't find the article any more but did read one about how each new generation of commercial aircraft is increasingly aerodynamically efficient. The side effect of that is how much further they can glide from the same starting point (less drag). Its hard to find numbers that aren't speculation but it seems like 1980s era designs (eg 767) are around 15:1 and current generation are around 20:1. Wikipedia even has a page about flights that required gliding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_flights_that_required_gliding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_flights_that_re...