AAIB (very short) report here
http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/cms_resou...OM%2007-07.pdf
Is it me or are the AAIB getting a bit confused with Final Reserve Fuel and the definition of
Alternate Holding Fuel?
If he can't make it into Gatwick with 7.4 tonnes of fuel the he should be on his way to Heathrow.
If he thinks Heathrow is going to be a problem at that time of the day then he should have taken sufficient fuel to divert somewhere further away. ie Cardiff/Birmingham.
The figure of 3.9 tonnes is the absolute minimum he should be landing at Heathrow with.
Are Virgin allowed to eat into their alternate holding fuel while still at destination?
What would he have done if the aircraft ahead of him at Gatwick had burst a tyre and blocked the runway? He would have landed at Heathrow with less than Final Reserve Fuel. Mayday would definitely be required at that point.
ATC responded exactly as you would expect them to in response to the ''Mayday' and are faultless. Otherwise it was an abuse of the 'Mayday' rules and involved a lot of queue jumping of arriving aircraft to Gatwick.
Sounds like it was company expedient and cost the rest of us who were held up the time and delay cost (we were sat at the holding point for 26L while all this was going on).