Pilot credited with stopping burning plane says he'll retire

LAS VEGAS — The latest developments on the British Airways jet engine fire at Las Vegas' airport. All times local (PDT):

10 a.m.

The British Airways pilot credited with halting a burning airplane taking off on a Las Vegas runway says he had only one other flight planned before his retirement, but he thinks he'll skip it and stop flying.

Chris Henkey of Padsworth, England, tells NBC News the only flight left on his schedule was a trip to Barbados.

The 63-year-old was going to stay in Barbados and vacation with his daughter. But he now says it's unlikely he'll make that flight because he's "finished flying."

Henkey was captain of the London-bound plane that caught fire Tuesday as it accelerated for takeoff. The 170 passengers and crew on the Boeing 777 escaped without serious injury.

Henkey says he'd never experienced such a dramatic emergency in his 42-year career. He deflected praise, saying the entire crew helped ensure passengers' safety.

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9 a.m.

Aircraft "black boxes" are in the hands of federal investigators probing a blaze that engulfed the engine of a London-bound airliner while passengers and crew escaped down emergency slides on a Las Vegas runway.

National Transportation Safety Administration spokesman Eric Weiss says a team in Las Vegas may provide preliminary findings as early as Thursday.

Weiss says flight data and cockpit voice recorders have arrived in Washington, D.C.

Investigators in Las Vegas are expected to talk with pilots, and begin looking at everything from fuel lines to maintenance records to engine history to pinpoint what sparked the blaze.

British Airways Flight 2276 was accelerating down a runway Tuesday when one engine caught fire.

The takeoff was aborted, slides deployed, and 170 passengers and crew escaped the Boeing 777 without serious injury.