THE Wirral-born wife of BA crash captain Peter Burkill last night spoke of her continuing sense of disbelief – a week after tragedy was narrowly averted at Heathrow.

Maria Burkill, who is originally from Bebington, has seen her husband hailed a hero for his part in miraculously bringing a jet safely to the ground without any serious injury.

Peter and his co-pilot John Coward saved the lives of 136 passengers when their Boeing 777’s engines failed on approach to Heathrow.

Even now Maria, mother to their three sons, says neither of them has really come to terms with the enormity of what happened.

She said: “Peter is having a lot of meetings and answering lots of questions from the investigators.

“He is an extraordinary fella and I’m very lucky to have him.”

The 33-year-old was living in a flat in Rock Ferry and working as a flight attendant when she met Peter, who was a British Airways first officer at the time.

She only left the area five years ago, and says all their friends and relatives in Merseyside have been a great support during the aftermath of the crash.

They have sent messages of congratulations and even found Peter through the internet site Facebook and left “well done” messages for him.

Maria said: “I want to send a big thank-you to my family there who have been so encouraging and all the support we have had.

“I can’t think of another way of thanking everyone for their thoughts and good wishes.”

Now a paramedic, after deciding she did not want both of them flying after starting a family, Maria says that is the job she lives for.

“Being with Peter gave me the support I needed to do the job I wanted to do, and it is so rewarding.”

The former Upton Convent pupil was born in Wirral and brought up in Bebington “opposite the Oval”, going to the nearby St John’s school.

Although she regularly returns home to visit her mother in Bebington and family who still live in Wirral, she says she has been “bit of a gipsy” living in different places since she left home.

At 18, she became a Redcoat at Butlins and then a holiday rep before working for BA as a flight attendant and meeting her husband to be.

They lived together briefly in Wirral, before setting up home in Worcester where Maria works and looks after their three sons Troy, two, Logan, one, and Coby, 11 weeks.

It was as she arrived home she discovered a voicemail that Peter had left minutes after the crash, reassuring her that he and the others on the flight from Beijing were fine despite what had happened. Disaster was narrowly averted when the Boeing 777, carrying 136 passengers, apparently lost power in mid-air as it approached Heathrow last Thursday.

The stricken aircraft was painstakingly moved earlier this week to BA’s nearby base, where investigators are examining it for clues to what caused the failure.

But the first Maria knew of the crash was a call from her father-in-law.

She said that had been the call that she – as the wife of a pilot and former member of crew herself – had always dreaded.

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