‘Economy to the detriment of safety’
It is especially galling, pilots say, when dispatchers and air traffic controllers on the ground contest their judgment that they don’t have enough fuel.

“Upon arrival, I called dispatch to see what the fuel load that was planned for [the] flight to [O’Hare International Airport in Chicago]. I was told it was 75,000 lbs and I asked for it to be upped to 90,000 lbs,” one pilot wrote. “I was challenged by the dispatcher as to why and said I will not fly with less. ...

“I have flown 27 of these flights in the last 60 days and on every flight that I requested additional fuel I have been challenged about my request,” this pilot complained.

Castelveter, of the Air Transport Association, reiterated that it was the captain who had the final say on how much fuel a flight took on, not the dispatcher or anyone else on the ground.

If there is reason to believe that a pilot is making an unnecessary request, “why shouldn’t a dispatcher question the decision?” Castelveter said. “That doesn’t mean to say he overrides the decision.”

How this story was reported Msnbc.com reviewed more than 5,000 voluntary incident reports filed by pilots and first officers with the Aviation Safety Reporting System. All filings in which flight crews declared “minimum fuel” or more critical “fuel emergency” situations were examined for those in which crews either declared the fuel problems after having requested extra fuel before takeoff or specifically alleged that they took off with inadequate fuel for conditions. The filings examined for this article reflect the sentiments only of pilots who chose to file reports and to include specific commentary on why they thought the incidents arose.

With crude oil selling at more than $110 a barrel, he said, “there’s no reason to top off if you don’t need a full fuel complement.”

It is clear from the reports, however, that some pilots fear that the airlines are emphasizing “economy to the detriment of safety,” as one of them wrote.

Early last year, after a flight on which “just about everything that you could have [gone] wrong with it” did, the first officer filed an unusually long report.

“We’ve taken just about every facet of what we once had as a safety net and reduced it to saving 50 cents where we can,” the officer wrote, adding:

“I am absolutely confident that if this is the way this company is going to play the game we will soon be on ‘CNN,’ and not in a good way.”

Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Grant Stinchfield is an investigative correspondent for NBC station KXAS of Dallas. NBC affiliate KETK of Tyler, Texas, contributed to this report.

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