Cap - I`m still intrigued as to what a "cultural value" is, as it`s not a term I`ve heard used in the aviation world...
By the way, at least one major airline absolutely forbids flypasts of the tower for inspection purposes.
If you want more idea of numbers for the 340-300, max ZFW is 178 tonnes. If the crew had dumped to around 10 tonnes, as you suggested in one of your previous deleted posts, then the landing weight would be 188 tonnes. Surprise, surprise that is only TWO TONNES below max landing weight.. And out of JNB we`re usually close to max ZFW.