Originally Posted by
Vokes55
So what exactly would you have done differently? Cancel the flight before it left Edinburgh like the majority of other carriers would have given the risk of not making it back within hours? Forced the crew to work beyond their legal flying limits? Left the passengers onboard or in the terminal until a standby crew could've been called out to fly them to Edinburgh (probably around 7am earliest)? Put all the passengers on the next available flights back to Edinburgh from Gatwick (on a half term Friday)? Genuinely interested in the armchair CEO solution.
Does it? I've had many flights that have gone within 10 minutes of max FDP. There was a French ATC strike on the same day, the flight took an Oceanic routing to avoid French airspace, and could've been subject to ATC slots (yes, even at that time of night). The crew would've tried to get back to Edinburgh, but the max FDP is a boundary that cannot be willingly crossed, even by a minute. Something as simple as a pushback delay due to ramp congestion, having to wait at the runway holding point for an arrival, avoiding weather en route, less favourable winds than forecast or having to reduce cruising speed due to turbulence could make or break the ability to legally get back to EDI or not.
If they knew they were going to Gatwick before they departed, the company would've had an extra four hours to arrange onward travel for the moment they arrived
With all that uncertainty, I can only deduce that their was no guarantee of even reaching the UK before running out of hours. Wondering if the clearance on the ground was for LGW, or EDI.