Jet/Long Ranger/206
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Human Factors; Weather; Procedure
The airport was consistently reporting a marginal VFR ceiling of OVC010. A B206; a helicopter called about 25 miles west of the airport; inbound with the ATIS. I vectored him a little bit for sequence and issued traffic at 2;000 that he was going to follow in to the airport. He replied that he was looking for the traffic. Once the preceding traffic was no longer a factor; a jet; I told him to resume his own navigation to the airport. Then I called him three times; giving him the location of the airport. He did not answer until the third call and he said that he couldn't see the airport because there were some clouds between him and the airport. I told him to maintain VFR and contact the Tower. A couple of minutes later; the Tower called me and advised that the aircraft was an emergency with low fuel and unable to get down. I checked with three other aircraft in my airspace looking for a hole in the clouds; none were found. The crash crew responded and other traffic was broken off of the approach behind him as he maneuvered down through the clouds. I worked the helicopter for about 25 miles. He said that he had the ATIS with the reported overcast layer. He accepted traffic calls and said he was looking for traffic. At no point did he indicate any fuel criticality nor did he mention that he might have any issue descending. Only once did he mention clouds between him and the airport. I assumed this was a small scud deck that he expected not to be an issue. The pilot should have mentioned his concern with the weather much earlier. It goes without saying that the pilot should have checked the weather before getting airborne and had sufficient fuel.
TRACON Controller described an emergency event when an inbound helicopter encountered weather and fuel issues but failed to provide ATC with critical information regarding same.