fuel discrapancy
Backpacker - Wow - that's a lot of fuel, but of course, I did a generalisation based on weather and best route. Without knowing the actual route flown, and therefore the wx en-route, and TOW, engine degradation etc., it is impossible to be completely accurate, but the point made there is that they had much more fuel than minimum needed for best sector. I used a max ZFW also, and a 738 with 138 SOB is not full, unless there was lots of cargo downstairs.
Like I said, point made -they had lots of fuel, so unless there was an undetected leak, and the crew were totally disregarding their flight plan, not logging Fuel Remaining figures or Fuel to Destination figures, then I think fuel starvation is very unlikely.
Whatever we think of them, pilots, are professionals after all.