I have never been happy with all the overweight theories that have been brandied about on this thread because, I wonder, just how overweight would this aircraft have to be to still be on the ground at the berm? I would doubt that a slight overweight error would result in an accident – it would have to be massive, which is unlikely. A simulator or performance exercise would prove or disprove this. There are, or should be, pads built into the performance figures to cater for slight errors – I do not know if MK retain the pads in their performance data.
Bill Fowler of the TSBC said “they needed more thrust”. 747Focal has been told that 1.3epr was set instead of 1.6. A 1.3epr setting, at this weight, at YHZ r/w 24, will cause an accident. If the 1.3 setting proves to be correct then the next question is: Why was 1.3 set instead of 1.6 and why did all three miss the error? I can only think of one possible explanation: Fatigue, mind numbing fatigue.