Yeah but where do you draw the line?
Isn't it great that when they structured the rules usually in the blood of mistakes of other poor souls, they had the foresight to give
pilot in command ultimate authority and responsibility.
Long before bean counters ever somehow got their grubby hands on operations, command authority is inviolate!
If it really goes wrong, you will be the only one defending your actions, as will I. Fuel buys time, how much is up to you. We both win
as far as I remember neither Captain has had a "strict liability" conviction waved in their face.
As I was not present at the investigation, I do not know what was waved in their face. I suspect all sorts of veiled threats were made, but that is simply my opinion. Had the Virgin aircraft not managed to find the ground and attempted a go around, it is highly probable fuel exhaustion would have left the pilot in command with little choice other than the unimaginable.
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.
All very true, but I think you would find that route has the aircraft nowhere near any take off limit and as such, its carriage would not impede commercial payload. Again each pilot in command is free to decide, that is the beauty of it. No matter what the 'bunch of people' may say.