On another note, FR has said they will now withdraw it.

We had exactly the same problem. We got a Westie and havent seen a rat since!

Other than that it is down to what the aircraft need to take off on full weight. For example an A380 would need a longer runway than an A320. Temperature and Height effect this decision.

Whilst the airlines that carry mail are “on topic” how long mail takes to get to other countries is not. Please keep this on a Commerical Aviation heading or ill need to divert it to General Discussion!

Would actually be very simple to implement toilet charges. Use a coin system to permit access!

I just don’t buy this idea. I still think it’s an excessive water in the fuel issue. If an excess of water is sitting in the lower aft part of the tanks (due to the positive pitch attitude in almost all phases of flight) it would be likely to come forward (possibly over the top of the standpipes feeding the engines) when a nose down pitch attitude is experienced. This is most likely to occur when the last stage of flap is selected for landing which would typically occur at about 4 miles out. This lowers the attitude of the aircraft . Bearing in mind that the engines would initially be at flight idle due to speed slowing from 160kts to Vref it would take a couple of miles for water to reach the combustion chambers. If you factor in the positive gusts that the aircraft experienced during the approach due to the conditions of the day then these could magnify the required pitch down attitude experienced and exposure to water ingestion.

Purely my own guestimate but I talked about water contamination in my first post and I’m sticking to it!

How does the water get into the fuel? Akin to a pub watering down the beer?

Given they are now focusing on the fuel flow that would suggest this was not due to pilot error? They tried to increase the throttles and there was enough fuel but it did not respond?

Would this new line of enquiry prompt immediate B777 checks? Surely given the length of flight time it was odd to come up at the last few seconds of flight? Can anyone give a theory as to what might cause a lack of fuel flow?