Yeah but where do you draw the line?
Carry an extra tonne in a 737 and that gives you another 22-25 mins or thereabouts if I remember back to my time on the 737
All the fuel does is move the decision a bit further down the track.
I am not advocating not carrying additional fuel when you deem it necessary, but where do you draw the line?
The Mildura situation was a unique set of circumstances that is rare to say the least - as far as I remember neither Captain has had a "strict liability" conviction waved in their face.
In the case of the 737 the extra tonne could mean the difference of 10 pax (assuming a MTOW or RTOW limited takeoff.)In my machine 60 minutes of juice is around 70 odd pax so that would get the attention of a bunch of people.
In my view we get paid to make informed operational decisions and manage risk.
The safest place for an aeroplane is on the ground doing nothing, so anything beyond that is a risk management exercise.