Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Retractable Gear
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1.0
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Procedure; Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication
I sat down on the radar position with no assist position at the time. This aircraft was deviating around some weather that was around Sitka Airport that he did not want to fly into. Aircraft X was at 18000 feet and was in between layers. Being that he was surrounded by clouds; he asked me what I saw on the radar screen. I told him I was showing him out of the weather and if I gave him direct to the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) he would stay clear of that weather. He asked how to spell the IAF; which frequent flyers know that is a very common fix and is the IAF to majority of all approaches into this airport. I realized then; that he may not know this airport all that much and also; he was on a long flight in just a single turbo prop. I cleared him to cross the IAF at or above 6000 feet cleared for an RNAV Approach. He was ADSB equipped so I could see him go down to about 4500 feet after the IAF and then stay there until basically over the airport. FSS called and said he missed approach. He called back up said he was too high and wanted to try it again. He said his auto pilot did not descend on the approach. I offered him to do the approach from where his missed approach was or I could vector him back around to the IAF. He wanted me to vector him and it kind of sounded like there was a little situation going on based on the sound of his voice. He told me he had 30-40 lbs. of fuel left; about 40 minutes. I gave him the weather at another airport as well as KTN again. He said he is going to KTN and needs to land this plane; and somewhere in there to be over water. I had to bring him up about 35 miles north of KTN airport to give him a turn less than 90 degrees to the IAF. I climbed him to 7000 feet to have better radio coverage. He kept asking for lower. I gave him my Minimum IFR Altitude (MIA) of 6000 feet. When I was able; I gave him direct to the IAF; and the same restriction as before. A couple minutes in; I saw that he was about 4 miles south of the IAF descending at out of 4800 feet not on the approach course. By this point; I had an Assist Position come help me who is an experienced pilot. We did not get a briefing in as I was in the middle of this and while things were going on; I was informing him of things going on in the sector; [and] it was not recorded. I had another airplane I believe who was familiar with the area and flies to KTN regularly who departed KTN and I got a good pilot report out of him and Aircraft X heard it. I used the other aircraft to relay and gave a low altitude alert and that I was showing him off course. I told Aircraft X to climb to 6000 feet. He started climbing and I could talk to him again and he was out of 7000 feet and still climbing. I informed him; I'm showing him at 7000 feet and to descend to 6000 feet. He as expected mentioned he is busy. He is well past the IAF now and closer to the IAF for the ILS Approach. He did not have that approach and based on all circumstances; this was his only shot at making the airport. He was on a flight path that could intercept the Localizer. I gave him the LOC frequency and the radial for it as well. Seeing we were in an imminent situation; my Assist helped the pilot by reading off the approach plate and telling him altitudes on the localizer. We asked the pilot what the next fix was that he was showing and he said COGOX; which he was well past that. He was having GPS problems it looked like. It didn't look like the pilot was able to get on the approach path of the localizer but he was close. We were descending him through altitudes much lower than our MIA. We lost him on frequency and he went over to FSS and we watched him descend into the airport. The end result was he landed safely and ran out of fuel right when he was on the taxiway to get off the runway.
I was paged to work the Radar Assist position for a sector to help with an aircraft in distress; low on fuel. I sat down at sector and got a verbal brief not on the recorded line; the Radar Controller was busy working. Traffic was light; it was not complex. Aircraft X was the most complex situation at the time. The Radar controller had the Aircraft X on a vector to avoid a course reversal via the holding pattern. The Aircraft X was cleared to cross the IAF at or above 6000 feet and cleared for approach. It was noticed right away by all sitting and standing at the scope that the Aircraft X turned straight to the airport instead of the IAF. I told the Radar Controller to the have the pilot tune in the LOC frequency and make sure to tune the OBS to 115; the inbound course to KTN. It was clear he was not on the RNAV course and he was set up on a heading that would put him on the LOC. Instead of me telling the Radar Controller what to do; he just said you do it; so I then took over and read the approach to the pilot the best I could. I did not have a lot of time as we were about to lose communication with the pilot. My goal was to ensure that the pilot was established on the localizer as it would keep him over the water and away from the mountains.  Aircraft X ran out of fuel as he exited the runway.  It was an emergency situation and not all the rules were followed but as a team we worked it together and got the pilot on the ground as safely as we could. ADSB saved this pilots life; we would have no way to know where the aircraft was without a lot of position reports that would have over tasked the pilot.
Anchorage Center Controllers reported they assigned altitudes and navigation guidance to an aircraft below the Minimum IFR Altitude because the pilot could not navigate and was low on fuel.