'skkm' that's pretty much it in a nutshell, well put. (as is both the above posts as I have just seen their good input)
There's a lot of opinion here but right or wrong the commander has the final say. If he decides that he's going below Min then he's correct regardless of fuel qty & justification was very obvious!
He clearly had not enuf gas to go elsewhere as he had a fuel emerg right there & then even if he technically had more than what was required to call it so so starting App's & going blw Min straight up was a good call as he would have had options albeit slim (aka going around) with 2100 kg's on first attempt.
The Virgin skipper obviously used up his similar gas by going around.
Remember we are talking about two identical airframes here but two different CPU's making the decisions so it's hardly going to be a text book outcome for both A/C.
The end result was to get the machines on the ground (in once piece) so apart from the rules & regs all bets where off & raw survivability was kicking in.
Wmk2
Last edited by Wally Mk2; 18th Jul 2013 at 13:21.