"Out of fuel" doesn't mean bone-dry. There's still probably several hundred pounds of kerosene, maybe more, onboard the plane (much like your car tank will still have a little gas in it even after the engine quits). Or, maybe they had the engines drawing off one tank and it ran out but there was fuel in the others, and nobody to switch to them. I think a 737-300 has three tanks, one in each wing and one in the fuselage, but I don't know if the pilots have to manually switch back and forth or if it automatically draws until all three tanks are empty.
}:-)4
That would be a great explanation, if it had been reported that way.
But they did say 'OUT OF FUEL'.
Besides. Why wouldn't the plane burn the 'several hundred pounds of kerosene'?
My gas tank on my car goes right to empty when I run out.
Maybe a few 'ounces' left, but not 'pounds'.
If they didn't do a lot of circles, they weren't carrying much extra fuel for that flight, to run out so close to their destination like that.
There was likely a good bit of hydraulic oil and engine fluids associated with this plane as well.