Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180; Flight Crew Total 9000; Flight Crew Type 5000
Workload; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Declared Emergency
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Weather
I was the Relief Pilot on the jumpseat for this leg. On arrival we were issued holding instructions with an EFC requiring a hold of about 45 minutes with no reason given. There were thunderstorms in the area but not over the airport. When we reached our EFC there was still no clearance so the flying First Officer queried the Controller and told him we were able to accept little or no delay due to our low fuel state. We had established a bingo fuel of 13;000 prior to initiating a divert. At 15 minutes past our EFC; we got clearance out of holding but were now on vectors. Finally; we got clearance for the arrival to our destination. We were clear of the worst weather; but had lines of cells to the south and the north. As we progressed further along the arrival it became apparent to the Captain and me that the northern line of cells was encroaching on the final approach path. We could see that two aircraft in front of us were just about to enter the cells which painted red on our radar. Captain asked us; what we thought. Should we go divert? I said it looked pretty bad and the cells were then over the FAF for Runway 34L. We had a clear way to proceed west between the lines of cells. I said; if we go try the approach and go missed; we will have much less than bingo fuel to get to our divert airport; and the chances of a go-around were high with thunderstorms on final. At that point the Captain said; let's get out of here. First Officer and I agreed. So the First Officer coordinated for our diversion. We had about 12;500 LBS of fuel at that point. Approach handed us off to Center and then Center started to vector us. The Captain stated we couldn't accept any delay to our divert airport but we still were getting vectored. Since it appeared Center was not giving us traffic priority; the Captain told the First Officer to call emergency fuel. But the vectoring continued; so the Captain declared PAN; PAN; PAN to announce the emergency state of our low fuel. He said we could accept NO DELAY vectors to our divert airport. Center then switched our Runway to 22 and said we would be cleared the LDA approach Runway 22. Captain saw the runway and stated that; so Center asked if we wanted to do a visual. Captain accepted the visual approach. We executed a short approach in VMC to Runway 22 and landed uneventfully with just under 9;000 LBS of fuel. We taxied to the hardstand and shut down the engines and completed the checklist. Following lengthy discussions with our Dispatch and the ground crew which met us we endured nearly 5 hours of being held hostage on the ramp since foreign customs refused to allow our passengers to deplane at our divert airport. It was decided by management that a new crew would be sent to our divert airport to recover the aircraft to our originally planned destination. Finally; our relief crew arrived and we were able to depart the aircraft. During our discussion with the company and the ground crew we asked several times to deplane the passengers; or at least if some passengers whose destination was nearby could deplane here at our divert airport. Permission was denied immediately each time. The treatment of our passengers and crew which had been on the aircraft in excess of 18 hours was no less than atrocious and unacceptable. We should never have had to endure the long ground delay after a challenging diversion into an airport which was in the same country and city as our destination.
[Narritive #2 contained no additional information.]
An air carrier crew began an approach to their destination as thunderstorms were approaching and so after holding; declared minimum fuel and diverted to a nearby airport where an emergency was declared for low fuel.