@ South Coast
Nice post Dan, but that serves only to confirm that the airline is safe and it is down to crew members to take extra fuel if they believe they will need it or if it compromises safety?
My implication is that the regs define the minimums and if you assume the regulators have got it right, then risk should be mostly mitigated and the operation will be as safe as the travelling public can expect.
However, often the circumstances dictate that more than minimum fuel should be carried and those circumstances should and need to be determined by the flight deck crew. If there is external pressure to take less, then safety is compromised. This is the thrust of the documentary - and seemed to be it's only and rather laboured point. They had had more, but I suspect this was the only thing the lawyers told them they could run with.
Can we assume that those three crews felt the weather at destination didn't warrant extra fuel?
I don't know. Maybe they didn't Perhaps, the culture of taking minimum fuel in RYR clouded their judgement and sensible reserves weren't carried. Or perhaps they did, but the pressure from within the company dissuaded them from doing so. Either way, they took less than was prudently safe, despite being technically legal.
As a pilot in an airline which regularly flies into airports with similar ATC and weather issues as the three Ryanair Madrid crews encountered, I would happily state, that in my humble opinion, they didn't have enough fuel. Personally, I would have taken as a minimum about four times the reserves the highest fuelled aircraft was carrying that night. And my company would never have questioned it, or applied pressure for me to take less. In fact, in more than 10 years with this company, I have never had a fuel decision questioned.
However, show me the facts that management put actual pressure on crew not to take extra fuel or de-ice or crew that have been disciplined for doing so then I will change my mind.
Will this do? (It's from 2008, but it sets the scene.)
Source:
raE Low RYANAIR com FARES AtmtimE Pilot Memo Re