Thanks FOCX,
I understand that (at least in theory) the ditching was an AWK flight and so the CAO82 doesn't apply - my question is - should it and what is CASA doing about it (obviously something if they're ringing people up).
I also re-read CAO82 and it says that the minimum fuel can be calculated (amongst other things) by having enough fuel 'to reach THE alternate aerodrome' but can't actually see where it requires you to have AN alternate aerodrome if the weather is fine. Maybe that's the answer - it isn't actually required as long as you meet the other requirements (depressurised etc). This wouldn't seem to be in the spirit of what's intended but certainly seems to be what it says.
I forgot to add in my original post that what got me interested is that ATSB don't make any reference to this CAO or the ops manual requirements in either report and that they would be fairly fundamental to things. The Ozjet report has a safety action regarding calculating minimum fuel requirements so they've obviously looked at it.
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