Gazumped, you are a complete fool. A Monday morning quarterback is a low character at the best of times but you take it to a new level.
Picking faults with a dynamic, unforecast situation with 20/20 hindsight is easy. The funny thing here though is that for the QF guys, making the approach as early as possible proved to be very fortuitous. Hanging about and making further legal approaches until they were at min fuel would only have lead to a more dangerous situation. Now I acknowledge they couldn't have know that, but as it panned out they were right in making their decision.
What I find absurd is your assertion that waiting until the weather was MUCH worse and their fuel situation was MUCH worse somehow would have been a better scenario.
Furthermore you stated:
Virgin was not going to do a missed approach, neither was qantas. You don't embark on a deliberate descent below the minima if you intend to go around.
Yet the interim report states:
At approximately 2358, the crew of YIR commenced their first approach, deciding that if they obtained visual reference with the runway, they would land and that if they were not visual they would conduct a missed approach. The crew of YIR had planned to descend to a minimum of 300 ft
300ft is 260 feet BELOW the minima! Even further than the Qantas crew busted the minima.
So the Virgin crew DID "embark on a deliberate descent below the minima" with the intent to go around.
All that being said, I think that with the information available both the Virgin and Qantas crews did an fantastic job and should be applauded.
Well done fellas.
I hope I don't end up in a similar situation.