As one who's 4-jet experience extends only to Vulcan B2s and BAe 146s, I'm not particularly qualified to comment on the pros and cons of extended flight OEI. However, having once flown a Pitts S2A from Jahore Baru to Pontianac (3:45hrs), I can say that I would feel very happy about flying as a pax in a 3-eng 744 for 10 hours and equally unhappy about 3 hours in a single engined twin jet.
My query is this: If the crew were able (through satellite telemetry or whatever) to contact their base engineering to ascertain the aircraft's 'airworthiness' after their shut-down, why couldn't they use the same modern magic to ascertain that the fuel they 'guessed' was unusable was, in fact, usable. Seems to me it could have saved a Mayday and much embarrassment.
rts