Delta Pilot Diary

[blues deville]

Written by a Delta pilot on approach to Tokyo during earthquake.........

I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel.

It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently

checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, to say the

least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean

crossing procedures were familiar.

By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was

going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The

first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started

putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual

congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link message advising about

the earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily

closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so

positive).

From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The

Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect

"indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame on that so I got

my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel

situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low.

It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting

diversions to other airports. Air Canada, American, United, etc. all reporting

minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for 1.5 to 2.0 hours of

holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating the situation.

Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to

damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo,

a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC

announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding, we all

had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka, or Nagoya.

One bad thing about a large airliner is that you can't just be-pop into any

little airport. We generally need lots of runway. With more planes piling in

from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel

critical ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting for

my fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya, fuel

situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was

"ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable

to handle more planes (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka.

With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal

considering we might have to divert a much farther distance. Multiply my

situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands

requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then

someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for

air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring

for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space.

By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me

flying and making decisions and the relief copilot buried in the air charts

trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages

were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch in Atlanta. I picked

Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal

fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of the

maelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai, a

small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got

flooded by a tsunami.

Atlanta dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose

airport on the Island of Hokkaido, north of Honshu. Other Delta planes were

heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts,

check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical

situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got

clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see -

trying to help company - plane overflies perfectly good divert airport for one

farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes

wrong.

Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and

tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation

rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to

Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa,

all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent

conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this:

"Sapparo Control - Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose,

minimum fuel, unable hold."

"Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full" <<< top gun quote <<<

"Sapparo Control - make that - Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel,

proceeding direct Chitose"

"Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose

approach....etc...."

Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on

fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing

Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that

is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.

As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining

before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling,

being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down

and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end,

Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose.

We saw to American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to

mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.

Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a

boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. -

that however, is another interesting story.

By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shook

the hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes.

Cheers,

J.D.

[J.O.]

Written by a Delta pilot on approach to Tokyo during earthquake.........

I bet that all of those other crews could tell a similar story. It's a good lesson in how to remain calm while all around you is crumbling - literally.

[Miles]

Sounds like your average day in the Caribbean during high season!

[Chipndeal]

Nice read. Thanks for posting this.