I believe that the plane which crashed years ago onto Long Island near JFK was an Avianca B-707. The First Officer never declared "emergency fuel". My company's FOM states that "minimum fuel" means arrival at destination with no more than 30 min of fuel onboard, and "emergency fuel" is 20 min or less onboard, and must be declared with ATC and demand direct vector etc to final apprioach course. Don't forget about unforecast fog from mountain lakes or ocean bays etc (Kalispell, or VPS). This trap is often missed by "company planners" when planning your fuel (well, the forecast looked good from our computer...).
My company also requires a reason when adding fuel to the original flight release dispatch fuel. Old-fashioned airmanship can't simply "rest on its laurels" over here: it means little to attorneys and bean-counters who run many US airlines. These folks are not in aviation because they enjoy airplanes, or else their backgrounds and resumes/CVs would be quite different. Our companies worship only at the Altar of the Sacred Big Buck. Even long before 9/11.
Apparently, many pilots in the past were afraid to declare "Emer. fuel" with ATC because of FAA involvement, which would mean probing into just why the flight began the approach with so little fuel. A Check Airman hinted to us once before a line check, that pilots can be so constantly distracted in older two-person jet or turboprop cockpits while non-flying pilot John Smith listens to ATIS, flips TOLD cards to landing weight, resets cabin, hydraulic pumps, makes short PA, requests three wheelchairs, listens to briefing for LOC approach to a short, wet, windy Michigan runway...[!], reads a few checklists, and later can't remember when, or if they compared flight plan fuel figures to fuel gauges on intensely-busy flight. "Was that call for us?-whoa, lets go Flaps 5. Tell him we need tower freq several miles before the final approach fix". Not to excuse serious omissions, however.
In Europe and Britain, is the 45 min. or so reserve fuel defined as being at cruise speed at FL 250, as it is here in the US? We have no figure to show us how long reserve fuel last (i.e. 5,000 lbs) during vectors at 6,000' and 190 knots etc. Our contingency fuel for a two hour enroute leg to a large hub, with some bumpy altitudes not considered by dispatch, can often be only 25 minutes or so, with no alternate or extra/tanker fuel. So much for FAR fuel categories. These "legal" figures were probably created by govt. attorneys in the 1950s, not pilots.
If OPEC even considers cutting back again on petroleum output in order to raise the price per barrel, let's suggest, as a c o a l i t i o n
, the "donation" of about 100 brand-new fighter bombers (Tornados, Mirages, F-15s, F-18s) with external fuel tanks and lasar-guided missiles to the Israeli Air Force.
How much do you guys east of the Atlantic pay for a gallon or liter of petrol? Wish I could squeeze this into a few handy "sound-bytes" or cliches.