Virgin Aircraft 'Emergency' Landing

[ad-astra]

Warren, I am not sure

it's ok to depart without a plan b

is an accurate or fair description of the current VA fuel policy nor is it an accurate description of the fuel management of VA crews.

I think you will find that it does at the very least give a diversion to the nearest suitable alternate even on a Cavok day.
It may not describe it as such but it does allow the diversion.

Crews are without doubt given FULL authority to carry what they wish and DO.

In 11 years I have never been counselled on my fuel requests.

A fuel policy will never satisfy all of the people all of the time and quite obviously is part of the overall risk management of the operation.
If that system evolves in the future from the lessons learnt from this incident then that also is part of a mature operation.

Quite simply full tanks would not satisfy some people on some days.

Equally it appears that the Met reporting system let several Airlines down on that particular day and if we as an Airline have to adjust for those continued flaws then it WILL happen

Perhaps reading posts on PPRuNe does not give a fair appraisal of the VA operation.