Originally Posted by
OPNLguy
All the requirements for a dispatcher's fuel planning are contained in FAA regs (121.639 and 121.647, for those interested). Some may recall that a 707 literally ran its tanks dry on a second approach into JFK back in January of 1990 and crashed on Long Island, but it should be noted that NTSB cited the airline involved (Avianca) for the lack of an operational control system, and their dispatcher was not required to operate under the same ruleset that U.S.-registered airline dispatchers do. One of the many things dispatchers for U.S. Part 121 airlines do is monitor fuel status throughout the duration of flight, and whenever it might be time to divert, we divert. In a former airline life, I dispatched many a MIA-JFK flight (which paralleled the last portion of the Avianca flight's route coming up from Colombia), and there were plenty of times the JFK delays got so lengthy that I had to divert my flight to IAD, DCA, BWI, PHL, ORF or another alternate in order to maintain a safe operation. Under the Part 129 rules applicable to Avianca (at the time) their dispatcher had no such responsibilities.
Has that changed? I would think any flight that's going over US airspace, whether it's landing here, or just flying over (Like a Canada-Mexico flight) should all have to abide by the same safety regulations that domestic carriers have to follow. Because if one of those flights goes down over the US, it's going to be our money spent on the investigation, and US citizens on the ground that could be killed.