The islands are 830km from the coast so with 21 PAX and luggage there is no way they could carry enough fuel to return to the mainland and I doubt if they were equiped for inflight refueling.
It is entirely possible that they ran out of fuel while stooging around waiting for the weather to improve after 2 failed approaches.
What was their alternate on the flight plan ? Did they even have a viable alternate ?
Last edited by The Ancient Geek; 3rd Sep 2011 at 21:09.