How does this happen? FLT 562

[262crew]

Why would you not top off before flight?


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... e0bcdfc5d1

[WallyB]

Did you read it ?

It was a diversion to Damascus presumably after a hold/indecision at Beirut.
Don't think I'd have chosen to land at either but when you're out of options (and fuel)...

[The Inspector]

And in this day and age where your employer (the airline) may give you a bonus for saving some fuel, taxi out and sometimes taxi back after landing is on one engine, and approach control routinely gets requests for '34 right' so they are 150 yards closer to the terminal and the dispatcher calculated the fuel load to the last gallon to save cost and fuel, the normal cabin load of 562 copies of GOLF Magazine and SKYMALL has been seriously reduced to cut weight-I'll bet it almost happens more than anyone will admit. Back in the mid '80s I lived about 15 miles South East of SEATAC and routinely had FRONTIER (the original one) 737's glide over the house heading for SEA and you could hear the turbines clicking away windmilling because they weren't under thrust.

Given the cost of Jet 'A' and the fact that a 777 (depending 0n model) can carry up to 34,800 gallons of fuel, I don't think 17000 Euros worth of really pricey Middle Eastern melted dinosaurs would cover the bottom of the center tank to a depth of 3/16ths of an inch.

[262crew]

Did you read it ?

It was a diversion to Damascus presumably after a hold/indecision at Beirut.
Don't think I'd have chosen to land at either but when you're out of options (and fuel)...

I guess I wasn't clear with my question. My question is about this statement........

"Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel."

Since things are not going so well in that area, why wouldn't you plan for the worst?

Just curious