Why is everyone giving ATC such a hard time on this?? The pilots
up, not ATC.
Concorde crashed and burned because a small piece of metal from the engine reverser of the previous aircraft was left on the runway. Said small piece of metal burst a main tyre which smashed a fuel tank, which caused a fire, from which the very experienced French Concorde captain could not recover, although he did his best.
Who's to say the bird or bunny on the runway didn't go through the previous aircraft's undercarriage, breaking loose a brake line, or through the engine, liberating a turbine blade? So you land on that, and your tyre blows, and you run off the end. You would then all be saying "Why did ATC let us land when they knew something might have been on the runway and it should have had an inspection".
I ask again; why are the CAA/ICAO allowing us all to fly around on minimum fuel? This is an accident waiting to happen. A company jet landed at its alternate the other day with just 1400kg of fuel left in its tanks. It was legal, but was it sensible? Was it responsible?