With regard to Dr Thomas’ statement:
“Distressing” – understandable given her personal loss.
“Incomprehensible” – then she has not been listening.
“given months, not moments” – actually, the Captain of the aircraft had at least 8 minutes of the Low Fuel Sensors telling him to land the aircraft which he acknowledged but failed to act upon.
“history of faults with the Caution Advisory Display” – Not so - the CAD only displays what it is being told to display by the various sensors connected to it. Like any other computer, cr@p in – cr@p out.
“specifically, a history of erroneous or spurious fuel indications, amongst other technical problems such as contamination of the fuel tanks” - correct and still being reported.
Having experienced the phenomena of being told one thing by the display/qty sensors and another by the Low Fuel Sensors in similar circumstances to JT2as far back as 2007 and 2012, it also caused confusion initially but, nevertheless the aircraft was on the ground in very short order. As a result, like JT2, I also spent a day in the witness box at the FAI.
It wasn’t until I was being interviewed by Police Scotland during the evidence gathering process in 2017 that I actually did the maths on this one and it really hammered home the point. For those who haven’t done it yet:
Take off at 2044, crash at 2222 = 98 Minutes.
Fuel indicated at Startup = 400Kgs, Fuel found in wreckage 76Kgs = Fuel used 324Kgs.
EC135 Fuel planning figure 200Kgs per hour/3.33 per minute.
324Kgs used divided by 3.33 = 97.3 minutes.