Originally Posted by
HEATHROW DIRECTOR
I can only ever recall Virgin and BA being short of fuel, never any other airlines. Is this still the case nowadays??
This reads to me as though you are trying to suggest that BA and Virgin use (or abuse) lower fuel minima than other airlines operating at Heathrow. Forgive me if I have misinterpreted you, but, while I can't speak for BA's crews, I can categorically assure you that I am under no pressure to land with dangerously low levels of fuel. The minima that Virgin use are in excess of those mandated by ICAO and the CAA, and may be augmented as the Captain sees fit.
Circumstances can conspire to upset a perfectly acceptable and conservative fuel plan, and, as someone else has pointed out, arriving in the South-East Approaches after a very long sea crossing leaves one vulnerable to those circumstantial upsets. It is patently not sensible to carry fuel for every conceivable contingency - otherwise we'd never get airborne with less than full tanks, and we'd limit our maximum range to something ridiculous! Every fuel plan is a compromise between comfort, speed, time, cost and efficiency. As in all things, sometimes plans go wrong - and, though rarely, sometimes they go dreadfully - and unforeseeably - wrong. That's why we, and ATC, have procedures to deal with that eventuality. The procedures were exercised satisfactorily on this occasion, and the mandatory investigation will determine whether there are lessons to be learned from the circumstances and actions taken on that day, and will publish those lessons.
Until the facts are known in full, perhaps the armchair aviators - particularly those for whom an armchair is the nearest they ever get to commanding a large jet transport aircraft - will withold from casting aspersions about the crew involved.