Thanks for your contribution, AMF. Perhaps if you keep up with the discussion, it wasn't about how complicated (or not) the logistics are at JFK. It was about the appropriate (or not) decision to begin disregarding ATC instructions and declare an emergency. And yes, it certainly appears from posts like protectthehornets, that some cannot see any problem with that.
Lets call a spade a spade. This is how it looks to me: The guy was close to landing, getting low on fuel after already accepting some delay, and thought that by sticking his neck out and demanding the other runway he was going to get "penalty box" type vectors and a delay he wouldn't be able to take. How am I doing so far?
The problem with this arises when he didn't give ATC the chance to accommodate him or not, or even see what was going to happen. Playing the emergency card too early, so to speak. All supposition of course, but all the purile stuff about "who's the boss" does make you wonder.