'Safe to say I'm finished flying;' British Airways pilot was about to retire

Ben Mutzabaugh | USA TODAY

The British Airways pilot at the helm of the flight that suffered a dramatic engine fire in Las Vegas says the Tuesday incident was the first time in his 42-year career that he has been confronted with a life-threatening emergency. And, apparently, it also will be the last time.

"It's safe to say I'm finished flying," Chris Henkey told NBC News a day after the incident.

The engine fire on the Las Vegas-to-London flight was the second-to-last flight assignment for the retiring 63-year-old pilot. Henkey was scheduled for just one more trip – to Barbados – before his retirement.

"It's looking unlikely for the moment," Henkey said about that last assignment to the Caribbean.

Henkey's comments to NBC came while he was in a Las Vegas hotel Wednesday, waiting to brief safety investigators.

Henkey, of course, is part of the BA Flight 2276 crew lauded for its quick action to get passengers to safety. There were 157 passengers and 13 crew members on the Boeing 777-200, which can seat about 275.

It's Henkey's calm voice that can be heard in a recording of his communication from the cockpit to the air traffic control tower: "We are evacuating on the runway. We have a fire. I repeat. We are evacuating."

The evacuation of the jet has been described as a textbook example of how to respond to an emergency on an airliner. Both the fire and evacuation played out in just a few minutes.

But, speaking to NBC, Henkey was quick to share praise with the entire BA crew. Safety experts say the crew's action likely prevented serious injuries in what could have been a deadly incident.

"It's not just me," Henkey said. "It's the whole crew, really."

The damaged 777 has since been towed away from terminals and runways to a more remote apron area of the Las Vegas airport. Investigators will now examine the plane and talk to the crew as they try to figure out what caused the engine problem in the first place.

"We're interested in the exact chain of events," National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Eric Weiss says to The Associated Press.

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