EI Fuel Emergency Barcelona - Not helped by Spanish ATC - boards.ie
Shocking on the Spanish ATC's behalf, but from experience I am not surprised in the least. They do not care about any aircraft in their airspace unless it's an Iberia or other local aircraft.
We were recently in Madrid's airspace at FL3xx enroute to the Canaries when we encountered Moderate turbulence that was very quickly worsening.
Reported to ATC and requested immediate descent to lower level. ATC's response was , we have not had any turbulence reported on your route!!! So we requested lower again. They asked us to standby and then asked an Iberia aircraft in the area were they experiencing any turbulence. The Iberia said NO, so ATC told us again there is no turbulence reported you must maintain your level.
By this stage we were in severe turbulence, couldn't maintain alt so descended with an emergency call, and they STILL argued with us.
They are the most unprofessional bunch of overpaid halfwits on the planet, and they are always on strike/work to rule!