Common sense states: putting two Inexperienced crew together on an aircraft doing a Public Transport flight into crap weather, give them an extra edge a couple of hundred kgs of extra fuel might have made all the difference. It would have allowed an extra 30 minutes in the hold and that extra 30 minutes was all that was needed. I dare say the Captain wouldn't have said anything about it. Airline flying is a team effort and there is no 'I' in team.
Captain takes his computerised sheet but the engineer forgot to tighten a nut properly is it the captain at fault? The Captain expects and rightly so that the support staff are doing their jobs properly and advise him accordingly before he takes control of the aircraft. Captains are not gods just human and sometimes the make mistakes the idea of a team effort is sufficient checks and balances to try to minimise those chances of mistakes happening. Why does EU-OPS require SMS?
There but for the grace of God go I. Worth remembering.