commander discretion
Hi folks,
question raised regarding the commander's discretion upon departure away from home base. Following situation max FDP 13 hours, scheduled block 11:45+01:00 preflight=12:45 total FDP which is within the limits. However the actual flight time is known prior departure to be 12:12. That means, calculating the FDP 01:00 PREFLIGHT+12:12 flight time+10 taxi=13:22. Its obvious that max allowable FPD is gonna be exceeded. Here come the 1 000 000 $ question. How justifiable is the execution of the commander's discretion out of base in that case? It must be said that the discrepancies in argumentation are mainly due to interpretation of the term "unforeseen circumstance".
One opponent is saying that knowing in advance about longer flight time cant be considered as unforeseen circumstance, ergo the commander's discretion isn't justifiable. Unforeseen circumstance is basically something beyond the control of the commander such as ATC delay or baggage ID. The other opponent, on the other hand, means that longer flight time is an unforeseen circumstance, cause that longer flight time is abnormal for the season that particular flight is conducted and previous flights have been within the limits. The reasoning behind it is that the airline is calculating the seasonal block times and publishes them in the schedule and those times are compulsory and not advisory. Therefore the discretion is OK.
I can see both sides having their reasons and its indeed not an easy situation.
Would appreciate your comments and thoughts.
Thanks.