An air carrier flight crew declared an emergency and diverted to their alternate with barely adequat...

Narrative:

We arrived in the ZZZ area with some holding fuel and weather/runway conditions adequate for landing; then received extensive vectoring for xxr. Runway conditions deteriorated making landing attempt that runway unavailable; declared minimum fuel and requested runway xxr; which was active and above minimums based on reported weather with braking action good. We restated minimum fuel but still received lengthy vectors for xxr. While on final xxr two preceding aircraft executed missed approaches due to weather although ATIS was still reporting well above minimums. We finally declared an emergency and requested immediate divert to to our planned alternate which had VMC weather and no precipitation. Planned on arriving there with 4000 lbs but due to greater than planned burn during second approach and enroute to the alternate we landed with about 3000. At no time while maneuvering for the two approaches at ZZZ did ATIS or ATC provide any information that weather had deteriorated. Declaring minimum fuel seemed to have no effect on our sequencing; even after declaring an emergency for fuel we had to request more direct routings to alternate. Accurate weather info during rapidly changing conditions would have resulted in a much earlier divert and improved safety margin.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Flight Crew declared an emergency and diverted to their alternate with barely adequate fuel following their failure to obtain expedited handling at their destination airport despite having declared 'minimum fuel'.

Narrative: We arrived in the ZZZ area with some holding fuel and weather/runway conditions adequate for landing; then received extensive vectoring for XXR. Runway conditions deteriorated making landing attempt that runway unavailable; declared minimum fuel and requested Runway XXR; which was active and above minimums based on reported weather with braking action good. We restated minimum fuel but still received lengthy vectors for XXR. While on final XXR two preceding aircraft executed missed approaches due to weather although ATIS was still reporting well above minimums. We finally declared an emergency and requested immediate divert to to our planned alternate which had VMC weather and no precipitation. Planned on arriving there with 4000 lbs but due to greater than planned burn during second approach and enroute to the alternate we landed with about 3000. At no time while maneuvering for the two approaches at ZZZ did ATIS or ATC provide any information that weather had deteriorated. Declaring minimum fuel seemed to have no effect on our sequencing; even after declaring an emergency for fuel we had to request more direct routings to alternate. Accurate weather info during rapidly changing conditions would have resulted in a much earlier divert and improved safety margin.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	934868
Time
Date	201102
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An air carrier flight crew declared an emergency and diverted to their alternate with barely adequate fuel following their failure to obtain expedited handling at their destination airport despite having declared 'minimum fuel'.