Investigation Reveals Pilots Are Requesting More Emergency Landings Because of Low Fuel

As oil prices soar, it may mean that some airlines may soon not be. United Airlines has announced it may have to ground 100 planes because gas has become so expensive. An investigation by WABC-NY reporter Jim Hoffer found that some airlines might be trying to cut costs by lightening the load and flying with less fuel. But that has put some flights and passengers at risk.

An examination of thousands of airport operational logs, air traffic tapes and interviews with pilots and controllers reveal airlines may be pushing the margin of safety by cutting back on the amount of fuel per flight. At Newark Liberty International Airport, just five flights landed under minimum or low-fuel conditions over a six-month period in 2005. In a similar period this year, 73 flights came into the same airport with minimum fuel.

Veteran commercial airline pilot Bruce Meyer, who retired last year, said he was called out by an airline for carrying too much fuel. "I was specifically called in and asked why I was adding fuel as many times as I had been adding, which I had to explain the reasons, which were air traffic control delays that I knew about every morning," Meyer said. Meyer said the competing pressures to carry less fuel at a time when there are more and more in-flight delays forced him to fudge the numbers to maintain safety. "I had to use different ruses to make the paperwork or hide the fact that I was putting fuel on board, but my responsibility as captain is to my passengers, my aircraft, my crew and to the safety of that flight," Meyer said.