ATC Handling of Low-Fuel American Flight

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
news

That is difficult to say. Perhaps he was sufficently higher passing Love
that it would have taken more time to land there.

An example I am familar with is passing Ontario Airport on the way into
Los Angeles. You are usually at 14,000 feet passing Ontario and on a fuel
efficent profile to land at LAX. That is a judgment call that can go
either way.

I wouldn't second guess his decision to stick with a company airport that
may have been on the best fuel-efficient descent profile.

It is part of the review that I am sure was conducted about his decisions.
Nonetheless, at the time, that decision was not for anyone in ATC to
question. Only after the fact was it reasonable to determine what, in
fact, were the nearest suitable airports.


DAL would have been only about 4 miles closer that DFW, but DFW has about
4600' more runway.