as an ex flt engineer we agree on something. Alas you are missing the point in your honourable rush to defend the Captain of this easyjet.
I will make it easy.
1) Since when have aircraft been designed that they are above mtow will all seats occupied regardless of fuel load? (this addresses the uneducated comments about the aircraft being unsafe due to exceeding mtow)
2) a nice chappie sent me an ops manual this week from a certain airline, it says:
Fuel figures based on performance limitations and / or journey requirements will be specified by the commander. Flight crew are responsible for supervising the refuelling of the aeroplane.
This deals with our laywer nicholas who stated that crew being responsible for fuelling was plainly
3) The same manual also says and I quote:
All delays exceeding 3 Minutes shall be reported by a sector log entry. For determination of the delay code, IATA standard codes shall be used. The commander should involve ground agents for delay investigation.
This is to deal with Bealzebub who claimed that after 25+ years as a commander he wasn't aware of these codes.
and one cracker I found almost at the end
For punctuality reasons, no last minute fuelling is allowed as this could result in a delay.
The basis of IATA codes is to help airlines determine why a delay occurred and address any issues with the aim of prevention. The reason we have a delay code 36 (fuelling) is because it serves no useful purpose to call something technical when it isn't. An airline will find nothing in the technical departments to help them with an overfuelled aircraft because it is quite simply not a technical issue.
Investigations of these incidents will follow one of 3 paths:
delay code 36 (operational) for an aircraft overfuelled in error
delay code 40 something (technical) if an aircraft side component failed or
delay code 65 (operational) if it was flight crew error
I challenge any of you to post FACTS contradicting that position.