When we all became part of JAA (soon to become EASA) I became aware at the usual time of "God the sun is just coming up" of BA aircraft coming off the Pond stating to London ATC that "they were committing to LHR".
It took me a while to figure this out.
As a dinosaur, I had enough fuel to get me to my destination, miss the approach and then divert to my alternate where I would still have 30 minutes of emergency fuel in my tanks.
So, under JARs, BA discovered that they could "commit" to LHR on the basis that two runways were available and continue without having enough fuel to divert to even Birmingham.
I would NEVER EVER have gone down that road. Nor did I when the rules changed.
So now it has come to bite them in the arse.
For British Airways to arrive at destination and announce that they do not have enough fuel to divert is, quite frankly, horrific.
At least the FR aircraft that (quite rightly) declared a Mayday to land at their diversion airfield had already been to their destination (Madrid) and had diverted.
This bunch of comedians would appear to have declared a Mayday before they even tried to divert because they couldn't?
Last edited by JW411; 6th Sep 2012 at 15:21.