Bungling on behalf of air traffic control at Cairo International Airport almost caused a serious incident today when an AlMasria Universal Airbus A321-200, (MSN 666 | SU-TCC) operating flight UJ-107 from Yanbu, Saudi Arabia to Cairo, was forced to declare a fuel emergency after a forewarned military exercise at the airport, surpassed its allocated time.
According to the Aviation Herald:
"The aircraft, amongst others, entered a hold at FL210 and was provided with an estimated approach time of 10:37Z. The aircraft however was still in the hold at 10:37Z with the airport remaining closed, the crew inquired about an estimated approach time and was told 10:53Z.
A321 SU-TCC (Jetstar)
Other crews already began to prepare diversions, the Almasria crew also considered their options for a diversion and indicated they would need to divert at the latest at 10:44Z. ATC assured they would commence their approach before that and the crew decided to remain in the hold.
At 10:44Z, the airport was just about to resume operations taking aircraft one by one, UJ-107 was still in the hold at FL210, the crew complained they had now exceeded their diversion time, now needed to land in Cairo and declared emergency.
At 10:48Z, 21 minutes after joining the hold, the aircraft was instructed to leave the hold and was vectored for a safe landing on Cairo's runway 05R about 14 minutes after leaving FL210 and about 4 minutes after scheduled arrival at the gate.
A number of aircraft had already diverted to Alexandria (Egypt) at that time. The crew of another aircraft, having their estimate just pushed from 11:01Z to 11:11Z, complained "at 11:01Z our fuel was already critical and now you delay us again by 10 minutes? Come on, this is aviation, guys!"
The aircraft eventually touched down in Cairo at 11:11Z."
Source [The Aviation Herald]
