Clear Pilot-Tower Fuel Discussion Urged

Federal safety officials on Wednesday urged pilots and air traffic controllers to make sure they clearly understand each other when dealing with low-fuel emergencies to help avoid crashes like the one that killed 73 people in New York last month.

The National Transportation Safety Board, in an emergency recommendation arising out of the crash of Avianca Flight 52, said miscommunication between the flight crew and air controllers figured in the Jan. 25 crash.

The board said it was still investigating and did not blame the accident on either the pilots or the controllers.

The board said pilots of the Boeing 707 told controllers that they were “running out of fuel” several times but failed to use specific language that would have alerted controllers to bring them in quickly.

FAA rules call for pilots to declare “minimum fuel status” when they need to land without undue delay and “a fuel emergency” when they should be given first priority and landing.

In a letter to Federal Aviation Administrator James B. Busey, the board called for the FAA to notify all domestic and foreign carriers of the need for pilots to be “thoroughly knowledgeable of the flight operating and traffic control rules and procedures, including standard phraseology.”

The letter also recommended that Busey immediately disseminate the board’s recommendations to all air carriers operating in the United States and direct air traffic control authorities to brief controllers on the circumstances of the Avianca crash.

The letter said controllers should be aware of “the need to request from flight crews clarification of unclear or ambiguous transmissions that convey a possible emergency situation.”

The board said it was investigating three other incidents involving deficiencies in communication that occurred since the Avianca crash. Two of these involved U.S. carriers and the third a foreign carrier, officials said.

The Avianca plane crashed while the pilot was trying to land at Kennedy Airport on a flight from Bogota and Medellin, Colombia. It had been delayed in holding patterns three times by air traffic controllers as it proceeded toward the New York area.

Eighty-six people survived the crash near Mineola, N.Y.

The board said preliminary evidence indicates there may have been “incomplete communication” between the flight crew and controllers at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, the New York TRACON Control Center and the Kennedy tower.

It said the crew used “non-standard phraseology” in telling controllers that the plane was low on fuel. Among phrases quoted from a transcript of the flight recorders were: “We’ll try once again, we’re running out of fuel,” “We just running out of fuel,” and “We just lost two engines and we need priority please.”