From the current Norfolk Online: (
Welcome to Norfolk Online)
Hi Folks,
I guess we will eventually read the ATSB report but I might be able to offer an answer to the question "why
was this aircraft so low on fuel?" To begin with he
probably wasn't low on fuel when he arrived at Norfolk.
Lets assume he had mandatory reserves on board. This
amount of fuel would be Fixed Reserve (30 minutes of
flying in a jet) plus any Variable Reserve (usually 10%
of flight fuel, call it 10% extra on route fuel to get
to NLK from Samoa). How long does it take to fly between
Samoa and NLK? It is 1450nm from Apia to NLK which
probably means about 3.5hrs of flying.
Therefore 10% of route fuel is another 21 minutes worth.
Result is total 51 minutes of fuel on board before the
first approach to be legal. Any extra
fuel is a bonus!
Each approach could take 10-12 minutes to fly on
average. Therefore 3 attempts to get in will have used
at least 30 minutes worth of fuel and
possibly 40 minutes worth. This means somewhere between
10 and 20 minutes of fuel left. What does a crew do with
this? Well my humble opinion is (after 13,600hrs flying)
that you use it to complete some sort of emergency
landing under full control and not wait until the gas is
gone and you are forced into the same decision. A
prepared ditching is far more survivable than an
unprepared one. All on board need briefing in the little
time left plus the cabin needs preparation for the
ditching and evacuation that will follow. Add extreme
stress (am I going to die soon?) and this can be a very
unpleasant time.
The result we know .. a ditching, a successful
evacuation and they were all rescued. My greatest
congratulations to the pilots for the best outcome. And
they ditched at night which vastly reduces the chances
of a safe water landing & survival. Double congrats from
me! I wonder which Westwind it was?
Cheers, Paul (Paul is a Pilot )
Now I understand.......
