Narrative:

I was the first officer (pilot not flying) on a flight to jfk. As we approached jfk we were told to expect holding at camrn. The ATIS showed that jfk was landing ILS 13 left/right with winds about 030 gusting up to 26 KTS. Apparently the localizer for 4L was out of service and the RVR for 4R was inoperative. The captain [pilot flying] and I noted that for landing on 13L/right would be a left quartering tailwind and crosswind component right near 29 KTS which was maximum for our 767. We held at camrn at altitudes between 12;000 and 9;000 [moderate turbulence] with an efc which was 45 minutes after our entry. We had two alternates; one north and the other south. Because the storm system was moving northeast we decided that the southern alternate would be our best place to go if we diverted. We decided that we would leave holding to divert at 17;100 pounds to allow us to land at our alternate with 8;000 pounds. ATC turned airport around to land on ILS 31L/right and we were cleared to exit holding for vectors to ILS 31R and then changed to 31L. We were just outside FAF for 31L when an aircraft landing ahead of us announced braking was poor and he had trouble staying on runway. ATC told us to go around and I noted that we were at our divert fuel load of 17.1 so I requested to divert. ATC turned us left with an eventual climb to 5;000. We proceeded to be vectored just south of jfk at low altitude for a long time of course burning up precious fuel. We made multiple requests for higher altitude and a turn toward our filed alternate but the controllers told us they could not release us from their sector because they had to wait for an open route. The captain declared 'minimum fuel' to ATC but this didn't get us what we needed either. As I continued to monitor the dwindling fuel I checked weather for airports closer than our southern alternate but every place had low ceilings/ice pellets/strong crosswinds on ATIS including phl. We eventually received a clearance and routing that would take us northwest of the airport and then direct. When we plugged the new routing into the FMC it showed we would land on fumes. The captain and I agreed we were fuel critical and he declared emergency fuel to ATC. We then were cleared direct to our alternate and given a climb to 17;000 but it took too long to get another climb to FL310. As we proceeded toward our alternate we decided that [another airport] was closer and the weather was acceptable to land almost straight-in. We landed uneventfully at [the divert airport] with just over 6;000 pounds of gas. I know that ATC had other aircraft to deal with but our divert was due to fuel and being vectored at low altitude without a turn toward our planned alternate even after stating 'minimum fuel' really put us in an unsafe bind. Timelier; more expeditious handling on a fuel divert in the future would prevent having to declare emergency fuel.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A heavy jet crew declared a fuel emergency and requested routing to the filed alternate after a go around at JFK; but a delayed clearance forced a landing at a divert airport closer than the alternate.

Narrative: I was the First Officer (pilot not flying) on a flight to JFK. As we approached JFK we were told to expect holding at CAMRN. The ATIS showed that JFK was landing ILS 13 L/R with winds about 030 gusting up to 26 KTS. Apparently the LOC for 4L was out of service and the RVR for 4R was inoperative. The Captain [pilot flying] and I noted that for landing on 13L/R would be a left quartering tailwind and crosswind component right near 29 KTS which was maximum for our 767. We held at CAMRN at altitudes between 12;000 and 9;000 [moderate turbulence] with an EFC which was 45 minutes after our entry. We had two alternates; one north and the other south. Because the storm system was moving northeast we decided that the southern alternate would be our best place to go if we diverted. We decided that we would leave holding to divert at 17;100 LBS to allow us to land at our alternate with 8;000 LBS. ATC turned airport around to land on ILS 31L/R and we were cleared to exit holding for vectors to ILS 31R and then changed to 31L. We were just outside FAF for 31L when an aircraft landing ahead of us announced braking was poor and he had trouble staying on runway. ATC told us to go around and I noted that we were at our divert fuel load of 17.1 so I requested to divert. ATC turned us left with an eventual climb to 5;000. We proceeded to be vectored just south of JFK at low altitude for a long time of course burning up precious fuel. We made multiple requests for higher altitude and a turn toward our filed alternate but the controllers told us they could not release us from their sector because they had to wait for an open route. The Captain declared 'minimum fuel' to ATC but this didn't get us what we needed either. As I continued to monitor the dwindling fuel I checked weather for airports closer than our southern alternate but every place had low ceilings/ice pellets/strong crosswinds on ATIS including PHL. We eventually received a clearance and routing that would take us northwest of the airport and then direct. When we plugged the new routing into the FMC it showed we would land on fumes. The Captain and I agreed we were fuel critical and he declared emergency fuel to ATC. We then were cleared direct to our alternate and given a climb to 17;000 but it took too long to get another climb to FL310. As we proceeded toward our alternate we decided that [another airport] was closer and the weather was acceptable to land almost straight-in. We landed uneventfully at [the divert airport] with just over 6;000 LBS of gas. I know that ATC had other aircraft to deal with but our divert was due to fuel and being vectored at low altitude without a turn toward our planned alternate even after stating 'minimum fuel' really put us in an unsafe bind. Timelier; more expeditious handling on a fuel divert in the future would prevent having to declare emergency fuel.

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.