In article .com,
says...


I know it isn't what you're saying but if you lose one engine in a
4-engine craft, you don't return but carry on, surely?!


No, that would probably be a bad call. You have just suffered an accident,
you don't really know what other damage there may be, to other engines or
otherwise to the airframe, you are already at your departure airport, where
at least you assume you can land safely, so knowingly launching on a flight
(which may be a long flight, if it's a 747) with reduced margins would likely
not win you much airmanship praise. Your biggest problem though, in this
case, is that you may be too heavy to land safely - If it's a question of
climbing to where you can dump fuel, and/or flying around to burn fuel, and
your main airport, with the best maintenance facilities is a couple hours
away and you're confident, from the nature of the accident and the engine
monitoring instruments that you're not about to lose two more, then your
passengers who thought they were headed to Singapore may end up in Atlanta.

GF