Originally Posted by
djp98374
4. as for the fuel--I dont know what type of plane this was nor its weight to say how many hrs of fuel it would have on board. Its possible because of a full flight and heave load they couldnt carry as much fuel as they would have liked...thus only giving them enough just to make the flight and not much else to circle an airport.
There are pretty rigid requirements on contingency/reserve fuel that planes are required to carry along, and their range/capacity limits account for that.