You're generally preaching to the converted here DB, however;
Above all Sid the lesson here is that none of us should try routinely to second guess the FM Emergency Responses. If the pilot followed the requirements of the FM that night he should have RTBed at the first Low Fuel Caption. There are good reasons for the procedures being written this way. They are written in respect of the design failure modes of the aircraft.
Mmm, as the warning caption did not stay on when acknowledged, the land within 10 minutes or rtb on the first low fuel 1 warning wouldn't apply as the FM only goes as far to say that if the caption remains on, so I would suggest to you that the actions were initially correct because the light extinguished. Same applies for the second no1 warning, that also cleared on acknowledgement.
What was that about second guessing responses?
The problem we have is that according to the report they had two low fuel warnings that were on for at least 15 minutes, with no action or indication ATC/radar trace/police radio/knee pad - paper note or otherwise to indicate that this was the case, except for a warning unit's nvmemory after the event that had just undergone a 100g impact. One thing I would go out on a limb and say is that this is unit memory, a unit that sends a signal to the lamps to illuminate, it doesn't actually say in the report anything about the condition of the lamp filaments themselves prior to the testing so we'll never know if they actually were illuminated. The test is reported on page 58, which in itself is interesting.
Sid the acid test here for you is this. Armed now with the detail of the report, flying tonight and the Low Fuel Warnings illuminate would you check you pumps and land within 10 minutes OR just carry on accepting task.
Which action conforms to the FM.
Either action could conform with the FM, depending on the situation;
Do the warnings go out when acknowledged?
What do the gauges tell me?
What do I see when I check the pumps/cb's?
Do the warnings go out if I had to switch on the transf pumps?
How long have I been flying already?
In a direct answer to your scenario; I could check the pumps and carry on tasking or I could check the pumps and land within 10 mins, both conform with the FM .... it depends on what information I have, what action I take and what subsequently happens after those actions.
Anyway what I think you're after is; I would acknowledge the warning, inform the crew, check the gauges, check the pumps and check the cb's. (Me being me would also mention something to atcu 'for the tape' ... as I do). As you have kindly allowed me the benefit of our newly acquired hindsight, if this happened tonight, on the first caption whether it clears or not, I would land wherever I could as soon as I could.
I thought you'd have a better analogy than that one
Basically you left home on your 'task' without enough fuel to complete that task, it's not as if you were asked to pick him up while you were already on your way to work and then had to make a substantial diversion.
