Fuel planning is an important part of the job that dispatchers and pilots perform before a flight can depart. It’s not just about having enough fuel to get to the destination, but also about having reserves if there’s bad weather enroute, if a diversion is needed, etc.
I tend to keep a closer eye on Miami International Airport (MIA) than most, given that it’s my home airport. Along those lines, the airport’s longest flight declared an emergency this morning, with some interesting circumstances…
Emirates 777 has fuel emergency after two go arounds
Emirates flight EK213 operates from Dubai (DXB) to Miami (MIA). The 7,845-mile flight is flown by a Boeing 777-300ER. Today, Sunday, May 17, 2026, the flight was scheduled to depart at 2:15AM local time and arrive at 10:00AM local time, with a total block time of 15hr45min (there’s a time change of eight hours).
This is a very long flight under normal circumstances. On top of that, at the moment, flights are in some cases taking detours to avoid certain airspace in the Middle East, potentially adding to flight time.
If you look at the Flightradar24 map for today’s flight, you might think this looks like any other Dubai to Miami flight. However, the flight ended up spending over 17hr15min in the air, to the point that the pilots had to declare an emergency.
What exactly went wrong? Well, the plane started off making great time, and the flight took off at 1:47AM, a staggering 28 minutes ahead of the scheduled 2:15AM departure time. Obviously headwinds were especially strong today, because around 16 hours after takeoff, the plane only found itself over Orlando, still at its cruising altitude, but ready to start its approach.
Unfortunately weather in Miami wasn’t good at all this morning, so the plane first had to take a rather roundabout approach to runway 9.
Unfortunately due to low visibility and wind shear, the plane had to perform a go around. At this point, the Emirates pilots requested to divert to Fort Lauderdale (FLL). However, the controller told them that the weather was still better for runway 12 at Miami. So the pilots informed the controller that they were declaring minimum fuel, and requested an approach for runway 12.
Unfortunately that approach also had to be called off at the last minute, because another aircraft was on the runway, and didn’t vacate it fast enough.
At this point, the pilots declared emergency fuel, which gives the plane top priority for landing. This included a “mayday, mayday, mayday” call, which is the most serious emergency a pilot can declare. The pilots finally managed to land on their third attempt.
They touched down at 11:08AM, over an hour after the scheduled arrival time, despite taking off from Dubai around half an hour early.
You can listen to the air traffic control audio for yourself below.
Just how serious was this Emirates fuel emergency?
On the surface it’s a bit puzzling that this got to the point of being a fuel emergency. Obviously this is a long flight in the first place, but the fact that they declared low fuel after one go around, and a fuel emergency after two go arounds, suggests they burned more fuel enroute than they were expecting to. They only had a slight detour on the approach after passing Orlando, but nothing massive.
For those curious about how these terms are defined, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), here’s how minimum fuel is defined:
Indicates that an aircraft’s fuel supply has reached a state where, upon reaching the destination, it can accept little or no delay. This is not an emergency situation but merely indicates an emergency situation is possible should any undue delay occur.
Meanwhile here’s how emergency fuel is defined:
The point at which, in the judgment of the pilot-in-command, it is necessary to proceed directly to the airport of intended landing due to low fuel. Declaration of a fuel emergency is an explicit statement that priority handling by ATC is both required and expected.
For context, generally aircraft must carry enough fuel to reach their destination, navigate to a planned alternative airport, and then still have a “final reserve,” which typically has to be enough for around 45 minutes of flight time at a specific holding speed and altitude.
In this case, it was 20 minutes from when the first landing attempt was made, to when the pilots declared emergency fuel. So yeah, that suggests more fuel was burned up until that point than expected.
Bottom line
An Emirates Boeing 777 flying from Dubai to Miami today had a much longer than usual flight, which lasted a full 17hr16min, well over an hour longer than usual. It seems headwinds might’ve been stronger than planned, then there was a slight detour over the Atlantic, and then the plane had two go arounds, before successfully landing on the third attempt.
The pilots declared emergency fuel, which is a serious call to make, and gives the plane immediate landing priority (along with a lot of paperwork on the ground). One wonders with how much fuel the plane actually landed.
What do you make of this Emirates 777 emergency fuel situation?
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