Reading the AAIB bulletin again, they say the low fuel 1 warning came on intermittently, then low fuel 2 illuminated permanently. If the supply tank contents were "as designed", low fuel 2 should have been the first to appear as it is the smaller tank, which would suggest that the actual safety margin between the two tank contents no longer existed, or indeed that there may have been more fuel in the smaller of the two tanks than was in the larger tank.
The appearance of these warnings in the "wrong" sequence, without the preceding amber warnings, and with his tank contents showing fuel present (erroneously) the pilot would certainly be confused, and would have been faced with the choice of believing his gauges or the warning lights.
As for the transfer pumps being off, because he had reached a point where the main tank had transferred all of its contents to the supply tanks, he would have had to switch them off. Thereafter they could only be used intermittently to return spillage to the supply tanks. If the supply tank contents were showing ok, turning the transfer pumps on may not have seemed an immediate priority.
As for the prime pumps, once fuel starvation set in ahead of flameout, with the fuel gauges still reading ok, switching on the prime pumps would not seem completely illogical.
Last edited by falcon900; 15th Feb 2014 at 14:09.
Reason: Blain kindly highlighted I had misread the tank schematic