What does this mean for the more than 700 Boeing 777s currently in service?

Boeing 777 in Trouble?Last week a Boeing 777 crashed at Heathrow Airport - the first Boeing 777 to crash. First Officer John Coward and the pilot, Peter Burkill, are being lauded as heroes for landing the jet just short of the runway with no fatalities.

Investigators are now citing engine failure as the cause.

Here's what happened. Nearing the runway, the plane's computer-controlled throttle attempted to increase engine power. The engines didn't respond and the throttle made a second attempt.

The flight crew then took over and attempted to ABC News Photoincrease power manually. No response again. Coward steered plane over homes and a busy freeway to the runway where it slammed into the ground.

Miraculously, almost everyone walked off the plane - 1 person was admitted to hospital overnight.

What does this mean for the more than 700 Boeing 777s currently in service?

There are only a small number of ways both engines can fail at once - failure to deliver fuel to the engines, electronic malfunction or pilot error.

Or it could have been sabotage - which is an entirely different kettle of fish. Thankfully, the FBI ruled out terrorism fairly quickly.

Investigators could take up to 2 years to conclude what caused this crash and if other Boeings are at risk. Until then, pilots steering the 700 or so Boeing 777s will have another safety issue on their checklist.

And so will those of us who fly frequently.

For now, we can be thankful Coward and Burkill's flight crew kept their heads and steered a useless chunk of malfunctioning technology to the ground safely.

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