Haughtney.
Of course we have all been a bit short at times and done the normal thing - use airmanship, command skills, divert if necessary.
I am not hanging anyone out to dry or using twenty twenty hindsight - I was there, listening in to part of it and we have an AAIB report available. Are you sanctioning that we all use the technique of calling Mayday every time we reach a minimum fuel figure at destination such that we avoid a diversion? As to the wisdom of arriving in the London TMA on a weekday morning with less than zero destination holding fuel then that is another argument.
The Mayday should have come as he went around at Gatwick (destination) and reckoned that he was less than Final Reserve at Heathrow (alternate). If he had any doubts about what he was letting himself into then he should have diverted en route at an earlier stage. Many people were delayed both inbound and outbound that morning to allow the Virgin to make his priority approach.
From your comments I cannot make out if you are ATC, a Virgin employee or someone that is not 100% up to speed on fuel planning and the rules that go with it.
My last comment as I look forward to other people's opinions of the report.