Originally Posted by
Ixixly
Why was he low on fuel to the point of Exhaustion? As I mentioned there could be a number of reasons that were NOT the Pilots fault. Personally I was not aware he had been let go by the company and can't remember reading that anywhere, if the case it does seem to point towards him being the source of the overall problem but without any actual facts I wouldn't be keen to stick the boot into anyone whilst there are other possbilities. As mentioned Spinex, all we know is that this was caused by Fuel Exhaustion but what we do NOT know is the events that lead to the Fuel Exhaustion, thusly putting the boot into the Crew as you seem to be doing is unwarranted at this point.
Bend Alot, it certainly seems like it was a matter of not having sufficient fuel on-board, but WHY was there insufficient fuel on board? Did the Pilot believe he had the right amount? Why did he believe so?
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To the best of my knowledge (and it is rusty) RPT ops require some form of double check on the fuel on-board to confirm carried forward fuel amounts and not only rely on gauges.
Often this required (if dipping or other options not available) filling to full tank or tabs at regular intervals.
This dramatically reduces the compound error of fuel consumption vs gauge reading - don't forget L/H and R/H tanks and gauges are completely independent on the 441 as are the low fuel lights.
So it being an RPT Aircraft fuel records, flight plan and maintenance records should all point to the fuel on-board the pilot actually took command of that day (RPT is a very big paper trail).
Either the engine(s) were burning too much fuel that day for some reason or not enough fuel was added for the required flight.
Maybe he just forgot to retract the gear and flaps that day - but we would have seen a slow speed on the FW24.