Originally Posted by
UnderneathTheRadar
Forgive me if I recall this wrong, but didn't the QF flight 'push in' at Mildura? - the report says something like VA was tracking for the 27 GNSS then after discussion with QF, elected to hold for the QF which needed to land "due fuel". I don't think there was enough information provided to clarify how close the two were but if (and they're only ifs), VA had gone first, with minor (any?) delay to QF then they both might have gotten before the weather really closed in. I'm not passing any judgement here but it strikes me that both a/c would/should have had similar amounts of fuel at about that time and the more direct attitude of the QF captain (need to approach "due fuel") helped them out to the possible detriment of the VA. Translate that to Perth and it can be seen how anything other then a "mayday fuel" leaves potential for intentional or inadvertent problems being created for others.
It's incomprehensible that any trans-australia flight can't be given a final fix time at least an hour out and use that to determine if they'll arrive with their reserves intact. If things go to pot after that then ATC should be asking for latest divert times or latest approach times and re-sort the sequence from there.
There's a few elephants in the room regarding the QF crews actions at Mildura. They knowingly reduced the minima to get in, which is still busting a minima to land, which was admitted in crew interviews. However there was no declaration of a mayday despite them planning to bust minima with a revised minima 200 ft below the published. That would have led to them being stood down in Mildura and the CVR and FDR data being seized for scrutiny like the case of the VA aircraft. Instead they refueled and left a few hours later. The VA aircraft was dealing with a low fuel state and imbalance which is described in the report. I assume for some reason the FDR and fuel records were not provided to the ATSB from the QF flight for some reason, which is beyond my comprehension as to why this information was unavailable. There is a few events the last 20 years now that seem to show a cultural issue at QF that its ok to bust a minima without telling anyone that you will do so, which then leads to a few other assumptions of how they view minima, but that's for another discussion. IMO the VA aircraft did everything right by the book except carrying the fuel for the TEMPO at MIA. Both aircraft landed safely which is the main thing, however had the QF aircraft come to grief due to preforming what is an emergency procedure the services would not have been in direct attendance as they were for the VA aircraft. Which is the main reason you declare your emergency so if something does go wrong all the chips are in place to minimise the downsides.
Have you seen the list of requirements (including PPR) to use it?
PPR means nowt if you need somewhere to land due a low fuel state, unless of course that PPR involves making the aerodrome safe for use.