Rockhound, to speculate on your original posting, "How come the pilot didn't declare an emergency until he had just 10 minutes fuel left?"
Firstly, the source of this information, Antonio Santos, "
PR officer for the Azores air zone", may not have the full picture.
A transatlantic flight would not normally be in contact with the "Azores air zone" or indeed any other agency on VHF. They would be in HF contact with Santa Maria, New York or Shanwick depending on their position.
HF radio is a notoriously poor way of communicating, however the following are among the possibilities.
1: The HF radio may be unpowered after losing all AC power. (Don't know about this, it is real speculation)
2: They may have been unable to contact the controlling agency at the time. It can be very time consuming and not really a distraction one needs while dealing with a major malfunction.
3: They may have declared an emergency and Antonio Santos wasn't on the copy list for it.
4: There is a saying amongst pilots which goes "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate." It is a kind of priority list with communicate at the bottom as it is the least likely to kill you.
5: Contacting Lajes on VHF 20 minutes out sounds like they did so as soon as they were within VHF range.
6: If I was a passenger on that aircraft, I wouldn't give a toss with whom he declared an emergency to, or when he declared it. I would just be eternally grateful that teamwork, skill and training brought a potentially tragic scenario to a successful conclusion.
