edmundronald:
Avianca 52 was written off as pilot miscommunication and lack of assertiveness, but nobody said that calling a fuel emergency may be a career buster if you are a third world pilot flying into NY, because your airline will get blamed for not carrying enough fuel for unlimited holds and then headquarters gets on your case and your career goes xxx. Cultural issues cut both ways.
I disagree. At about the same time an American Airlines flight declared an emergency because of low fuel state, and absolutely nothing punitive happened to that crew. I believe there were a couple of others as well. JFK was backed up beyond belief that night.
In the case of a foreign carrier, the FAA does nothing other than report it to the State Department for diplomatic exchange with the foreign country. That is not done often and my educated guess would not have happened had Avianca 52 done a mayday for low fuel.