No idea K....but our expert reported this on Flightglobal, this tends to say total power loss and the pilot started procedures to avoid drag..although doing some research myself I am sure the APU starts automatically when the aircraft looses power from both engines, can anyone confirm this??
See our safety experts(David Learmounts) video on the accident http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJiA2Nt6ljU
The crew managed to control the descent to a touchdown with wings level, on grass just over the perimeter fence at Heathrow, on the 27L extended centreline. The gear was down, flaps were set at about 20°, and the indications are that the crew had started the auxiliary power unit.
On touchdown the 777's gear dug into the soft ground and separated. The aircraft came to rest at the threshold of runway 27L having made a short ground run of about 350m (1,150ft), probably because at touchdown the aircraft was close to its stalling speed.
When the main gear separated it caused considerable damage to the engines and the wings near the wing-root trailing edge.
The weather at Heathrow at the time was wind from 220° at 16kt (30km/h), broken cloud at 1,400ft (426m) and 2,000ft, temperature 11°C, dew point 9°C, with a warning that the wind might vary temporarily to 240° at 20kt, gusting to 32kt. The visibility was greater than 10km (6.2 miles).
He who laughs last obviously has'nt heard the bad news.