Fuel Emergency

[Rgould]

Currently, I am working on a school paper on Fuel Exhaustion and Starvation. I am wondering how often do pilots dip into their fuel reserves and at what point does one declare an emergency due to insufficient fuel that would allow them to land immediately at any airport.

 

[mar]

One star?

I think this is a fair question and I don't understand the one-star rating.

In over 18 years of flying and 8000 hours I've probably dipped into my reserves twice. Maybe three times but I never checked that close.

My problems have been unforecasted winds aloft and unforecasted weather that necessitated prolonged holding.

I've never declared an emergency but I have diverted en route to make an unplanned fuel stop.

I hope your study goes well. Good luck.

 

[General Lee]

I agree with MAR, usually it is due to those pesky headwinds or extra holding due to vis problems or lines of weather. Sometimes congestion at certain airports (EWR or LGA) can cause holding too, and that is something that sometimes isn't factored into the flight plan. We are often alerted first by our own dispatchers via ACARS onboard, which relay messages about holdups, and we are usually given options in advance---so we rarely have low fuel problems---they seem to be watching us from below.(thank God they can't hear what we are saying...yet) The use of ACARS and up to the second info (your location via ATC radar) etc available to Dispatchers has really helped out. Good luck.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[azxj]

I've been flying for 12 years and I think I've only dipped into my reserves once. MIN fuel should be declared when you think you will land with less than 45 minutes of fuel. This lets the controller know that you cannot except any "undue delay", but doesn't necessarily give you priority. An emergency should be declared when you think you will have less than 30 minutes of fuel upon landing.

Heard a NWA plane the other day declare MIN fuel, and he did get priority at DTW, guess the controller didn't want to be the guy working when someone ran out of gas.

 

[enigma]

Technically, reserve fuel is only a dispatch requirement under 121. However, I will go along with the spirit of your question and consider it to mean anytime I landed with a fuel quantity below the planned reserve amount.

I did so once, when I was the FO and just didn't do a very good job of telling the Captain that I was about to have to kill him because he insisted upon ignoring the situation. As a relarively junior 121 Captain, I have never landed with fuel below the planned reserve. I have burned into my "extra" fuel on numerous occasions. Extra fuel is the fuel that the dispatcher adds because he anticipates delays of some sort.

To answer your question about declaring an emergency, I will first declare minimum fuel at about the point that I am going below planned reserve. If the situation gets shaky after that, I would declare the emergency at such a time that I determine, after considering factors such as W/X, traffic, etc, that we need to make the next approach. In other words, if after the minimum fuel declaration, ATC still continues to jerk us around, then I would declare.

regards,
enigma

 

[General Lee]

The key is having the "bawls" to actually tell ATC that you have the problem. The guys flying the Avianca 707 that crashed in Cove Neck, Long Island were intimidated and couldn't do it. I am sure there are other examples, like the United DC-8 that crashed in Portland, OR too.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[100-1/2]

As of January 2002, the FAA added another option. Look-up "Immenent" in your Definitions section of the FAR/AIM. I believe you can do a search on the FAA website "Fuel + Imminent" to find the advisory circular describing the scope and foundation for this new declaration not limited to Fuel situations. It is designed to relate/declare a potential situation(s) with regard to remaining fuel and void of retribution and/or implications of failed planning on the part of the flight crew. It forms a bridge between the ATC Handbook and the flight crew roles and responsibilities. The ATC handbook requires certain and immediate actions and procedures in both cases where "Minimum Fuel" or "Fuel Emergencies" are declared. I was in a situation many years ago, where I digressed from a Minimum fuel situation to a Full blown Emergency within the key of a microphone and was well beyond any human's control. The response from the FAA, ATC and my company were overwhelmingly supportive and played a part in the creation of this "new" 'declaration". It allows ATC to prioritize traffic without actually giving an aircraft priority as does occur in the ATC Handbook following a declaration of Minimum Fuel. In my situation, this would have been a n unneccessary nightmare for the Controller as I was already in the sequence. Declaring an Imminent fuel situation is a formal declaration now availability to savvy folks already familiar and versed on the "Fuel Situation" statement used by Flight crew in their transmissions. Not an emergency and not burning "minimum" fuel, the response from ATC could vary greatly, and this just allows a uniform response by ATC and at the discretion of the Controller/Supervisor as is usually involved shortly after any adverse situation at that facility. You are not indicating you require priority nor do you have an emergency. You are simply notifying ATC that unless some alternative action is taken, your aircraft could likely encroach one of these more restrictive regimes. The other day I heard a rerouting over the radio that took a guy way the hell north and into the stronger wind from a Wx system to get around saturated sectors, flow and weather, depending on that joe's fuel situation, it was a perfect opportunity to use such a declaration. While not receiving priority from the Sector he was in, the Controller could inform the original sectors involved in the flight plan to see if the reroute could be trimmed completely, if not earlier than the full reroute. These days, reroutes often originate from staffing levels within ARTCC and are an easy/quick fix. It is easier to send one guy out to BF nowhere than to coordinate minor displacement of 2 aircraft to 2 other sectors.

Most guys know what and how their a/c burn fuel in certain conditions. With the technology induced information available to the front office, they have a pretty good idea whether their fuel status will be in their reserves or beyond in the event an approach to landing cannot be accomplished. If you are sweating, or looking at the gages more than twice per minute, you ought to be talking to ATC. I don't believe there is a hard and fast rule to talking other than this in supplement:

Part 91, 121 and 135 all have fuel requirements for IFR, VFR, Day and Night. If your flight is expected to arrive at your filed/intended destination with ANYTHING LESS than the gas you need to continue as per your operation;91, 121, 135, IFR, VFR, Day or Night, you are AT BEST in a "Minimum Fuel" condition. If you have fuel to spare and receive holding, routing, or speed instructions that is expected (EFC/ETA/ETE) to consume more than 50% of that spare fuel, it sounds like an "Imminent Fuel" condition depending on how much "spare" fuel you have. If you are required to list an alternate airport and you barely have enough fuel to make that alternate should you not be able to complete an approach to a landing at your destination, you are in an "Emergency" fuel situation, whether you like it or not. I started a search on NTSB accident reports of "Fuel Starvation" contributable/causes for 2002 and it made me sick. I could not get past March ther were so many. Too, much sweating and lost lives and not enough talking, fessing up and coming down while the motor(s) were still running on liquid forms of gas.

hope this helps in your search,
100-1/2

 

[Rgould]

Thanks for your Help

Thank you everyone for taking the time to help a student with a term paper. Have a great Thanksgiving.

 

[MD80JAD]

On a severe VFR day flying from Florida to Detroit we were climbing through 10,000 feet up to 29,000 and the captain pulled out the flight/fuel plan and started crunching away. Note: we normally dont start calculating until level off... on short legs. He then told me we were below min fuel for our second fix and he immediatley declared min fuel 10 minutes into our 2.5 hour flight I was dumbfounded. I thought there was no way we would get priority handling for the next 2 plus hours. But we did. We got direct the final fix on the arrival and shaved about ten minutes off the total time of the flight. Next thought was we would be investigated. We landed with 200 lbs over min and we were legal. Nothing ever came of the "incident" and I learned a valuable lesson.. Dont be afraid to inform people of your situation.
GOOD LUCK AND FLY SAFE