AOF, Thanks for your comments. I really am concerned that the extended mission ranges just might be one of the causational factors here!
I have been around the 135 for most of its 10 years and know fairly well what is a typical mission profile for a large proportion of the fleet, And they are not long missions!
Suddenly the rules have changed, and as a result the missions must be getting longer, making fuel management issues much more of a factor than before.
Its just too easy to dismiss that possibility as being one of the factors that made up the chain of events that culminated in >>>>>>>.
TF