EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250; Flight Crew Total 12000; Flight Crew Type 8500
Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
General Declared Emergency
Airport; Company Policy; Procedure
[Company] flight...landed just prior to our arrival but failed to close their flight plan with ATC (Tower closes at 22:30.) Our approach clearance was terminated at 3;100 feet and ATC would not clear us for any approach including a visual until [Company] flight closed their flight plan. ATC issued us a hold just outside the marker. It was clear VMC and we could see the runway from the hold. I routinely monitor the Number 2 radio so I had heard [Flight Number] call [Airport] Ops and report on the ground; and Ops assigned them [a] gate.... We had contacted Ops approximately ten minutes earlier and were assigned [a] gate.... However; all attempts by ATC to contact the [Company] flight or [Airport] Ops in an attempt to close their flight plan were failing. We also made approximately thirty attempts to contact [Airport] Ops via radio over approximately a 25 minute period; as did Dispatch. We communicated with Dispatch regarding our condition as best we could to get a diversionary airport. Since we are not allowed to cancel IFR in the air we had a bit of a dilemma burning fuel fast over a perfectly good airport and runway. After holding for about 23 minutes; I made the decision to declare an emergency with ATC (which was mimicked by dispatch via ACARS later after running alternate fuel scenarios) and take a visual approach...; as the risk of stretching our fuel to [Alternate] seemed hardly justified under the circumstances. ATC advised we were cleared for the visual and requested us to close our flight plan on the ground; but landing would be at our own risk; since they had an aircraft 'missing.' We landed...without incident. We parked next to the [Company] aircraft and discovered the crew had already left for the hotel. We communicated the aircraft number to ATC after shutdown and they had just reached the crew and closed their flight plan.
ATC denied an EMB 170 flight crew landing clearance at an airport with a closed Tower due to a previously landed air carrier crew not closing their flight plan. The EMB 170 crew declared a fuel emergency rather than divert from a field in VMC with a clear runway.