Air Berlin 737 low on fuel over Heraklion

[Tu.114]

I find it somewhat sobering to read such obviously ill-recherched pieces of journalism - it makes one wonder how trustworthy other articles on themes one knows next to nothing about are.

Anyway, for the benefit of the odd journalist who might have a read here:

The fuelling requirements for the flight in question are as follows.

-Fuel for starting the engines, running the APU and taxiing to the Runway (known as Taxi Fuel); usually a standard amount that might depend on the departure airport.

-Fuel to fly from departure airport to destination airport. This is calculated for each flight individually and takes into account the exact route, flight level, winds, temperature and aircraft mass. It also takes into account possible aircraft malfunctions that while they are legal to fly with might cause a higher fuel burn. This amount is known as Trip Fuel.

-5% of the Trip Fuel to cover for inaccurate winds, a less optimal flight level flown or other contingencies - therefore known as Contingency Fuel.

-Fuel to get from the destination to the farthest planned alternate, again taking into account the items listed for Trip Fuel - this amount is unsurprisingly called Alternate Fuel.

-And fuel required to hold at 1500ft above the Alternate Airport for 30 minutes. This is the oft-mentioned Final Reserve.

Sum all these mentioned items up, and You get the legal minimum fuel that needs to be in the tanks before beginning a flight - less is not allowed by law. This amount of fuel is called Minimum Block Fuel (or Min Block for short).

Then there is a thing called Extra Fuel, which the Commander can decide to take along if he is so inclined. Factors that tend to increase the amount of extra fuel taken are bad weather at some point along the route, expected heavy traffic or other things that leads the Commander to expect delays during the flight. Also, a difference in fuel prices between departure and destination might influence this decision.

So to sum it up: It is required to have Min Block in the tanks when starting the engines. It is not required to have anything on top on board, although it is usually prudent. And it is required to have the Final Reserve in the tanks after landing. Nothing more.

Now, when is it required to notify ATC of a low fuel state? The first call will be made when it is to be anticipated that the present clearance will allow one to land with more than Final Reserve on board but any delay will cause the fuel state on landing to be less - this is NOT an emergency call but just a heads up containing the words "Minimum Fuel". An emergency needs to be declared when the calculated fuel on board after landing at the nearest adequate aerodrome is below Final Reserve.

Let us now look at the flight in question. It has obviously started the engines and taxied to the departure runway (using the Taxi Fuel), then flew to Heraklion and made one approach (using the Trip Fuel). The subsequent go-around will then be covered by whatever is left of the Contingency Fuel and the Alternate Fuel. And now a decision had to be made: stay at Heraklion for a landing or proceed to an alternate (typically Chania). If a landing at Heraklion is not considered doubtful for whatever reason, there is no reason to burn up more fuel to get to the Alternate (remembering one just needs Final Reserve after landing!), so one might well choose to stay. But then the presumed second go-around will eat up more of the Alternate Fuel - so it is indeed prudent and reasonable to at least declare Minimum Fuel (the difference to an emergency we have just seen!) to get priority for landing.

So - from what has been written, there is no reason to believe that there was something illegal about this flight. As BOAC has said, it all worked as designed and the aircraft got on the ground safely.