MR8 Agree 100%
BYMONEK Agree 95% : Very good post, but don't really think its fair to blast the skipper because he was a DEC. It appears he has slotted right into the EK way of thinking straight away ie. do as the company says or else!
I have to say that I would have tried my utmost to deplane those PAX at LHR even if it meant leaving their bags/freight on board to save time. (I do not believe for one minute that there were no staff on duty at LHR, the flight was only an hour late for gods sake!). And I wouldn't have taken off until I'd spoken with SENIOR management on the SAT phone to protest this crap decision!
There is absolutely no way they would have had enough fuel remaining from the original flight as they would have been min fuel as the had to offload freight at DXB (BTW, what a piece of crap that old B777 is, can't even take a full load on a poxy 7 hour flight to LHR --- should have taken a 'Bus
), so they would have had to pull on stand to refuel, load sheet, flight plan etc which with the best will in the world would have taken 30 mins....so why not let the PAX off then?
Sorry, but crap decision all round and that includes the flight crew (sorry guys, had to be said), if I'm missing a glaring piece of info then I take it back, but on face value, they should have argued the toss!!
Be sensible out there boys and girls, or we're gonna start to look very Mickey Mouse!