I do not understand how an aircraft can run out of fuel 5 minutes into a flight? What am I missing here?
Who says it ran out fuel?
Let the investigators get in and do their job.
exactly.
My guess (and that's all it is) is that with a ferry range of ~2,000 miles, they took off with the plan to top off the tanks at altitude to extend their fuel range.
(not sure if the 2,000 is with 3x drop tanks or without?, 3 tanks is another 60% fuel)