Pittsextra;
What might be money better spent is a significant increase in the amount of funding / resourcing of the AAIB.
Whilst professional aviators might not give two hoots that it might take 18 months to conclude a report it does seem odd to everyone else, especially if the conclusion might very well ultimately be "it ran out of fuel".
But it didn't 'run out if fuel' did it!
If you would give respect to all those that died, their friends & family, all those that are affected by the incident and all those trying desperately to find out what happened that night, you'd possibly appreciate these investigations take time and not everything is about money.
Should you care enough to read the update from the AAIB, apart from mentioning the multi national manufacturers, authorities and representatives (a hint one of the many reasons as to why these investigations take so long) it says;
"As a result, significant work was required to extract and analyse the contents of non-volatile memory (NVM) from micro-chipped equipment known to record data. This, together with further examination of the aircraft and subsequent tests, has now been completed, to the extent that the investigation team may reach its conclusions."
Hopefully this data analysis may give an indication as to how the ac came to be configured as it was in the moments prior to the incident. Your simple uninformed and rushed conclusion of 'it simply ran out of fuel' is not only factually incorrect, it is also highly disrespectful to not only all those involved in the investigation, but to all that died that night.
The families need the answers and more importantly, the correct answers, no matter how long that may take. Shame on you Pittsextra.