Emirates flight 213 from Dubai to Miami got into a fuel emergency after a longer than usual flight and bad weather on arrival. The Boeing 777-300ER is normally scheduled for 15 hours and 45 minutes, but the flight on Saturday took 17 hours and 16 minutes of actual flight time.
Miami was in the middle of a nasty thunderstorm right as the flight arrived. Visibility was poor, rain was heavy, winds were gusting and the clouds were the kind associated with windshear.
The flight was initially set up for runway 9 at Miami. On final approach, the crew abandoned the landing because of low visibility and windshear.
After that missed approach, they asked about diverting to Fort Lauderdale. Air traffic control suggested Miami runway 12. The crew accepted and told ATC they were minimum fuel.
That meant they could land if the clearance stayed workable – but don’t put us in a holding pattern or vector us around. That’s not an emergency declaration or demand for priority, but any change to the clearance may result in landing below planned final fuel reserve.
Emirates 213 then flew the runway 12 approach. But another aircraft hadn’t vacated the runway on time. The 777 had less than 100 feet to landing when the tower ordered a go-around, giving the minimum-fuel plane exactly the delay it had warned it couldn’t absorb.
Cockpit of Emirates Boeing 777
After that second go-around, the cockpit crew declared Mayday due to low fuel. They were then given priority, another aircraft was moved out of the landing pattern, and they touched down on runway 12 on their third attempt into Miami.
- The long sector consumed more margin than usual.
- The first go-around pushed the crew into “minimum fuel.”
- The second go-around turned the situation into an emergency.
Emirates flight from Dubai to Miami declares MAYDAY at Miami International Airport this morning for low fuel.
EMIRATES 213 flt (Boeing 777-300ER) was on approach to runway 09 at MIA when they had to go around due to low visibility/wind shear due to thunderstorms.
They… pic.twitter.com/xY7DYiVktE
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) May 17, 2026
A fuel emergency is where, in the pilot-in-command’s judgment, priority handling is required to proceed directly to landing. “MAYDAY FUEL” means predicted usable fuel on landing at the nearest safe location will be less than planned final reserve. It does not mean the engines were about to quit. Final reserve is generally fuel for 30 minutes at holding speed at 1,500 feet above the destination, though some authorities require 45 minutes.
It’s unclear whether they had enough fuel to divert to Fort Lauderdale. While “[o]ne has to wonder…[d]id they even have the fuel to divert to Ft. Lauderdale without any delays there?” it seems to me:
- When they first asked about Fort Lauderadale after the runway 09 missed approach, they would have still considered that airport viable. (If they hadn’t they would probably already have declared an emergency rather than ask about a normal diversion.)
- Once air traffic control offered runway 12 at Miami and the crew declared minimum fuel, they were effectively committing it.
- After the second go-around, diverting to FLL would have meant extra miles from a new approach and exposure to any traffic and weather delay there.
Emirates Boeing 777
It’s tough to say whether anyone was at fault here. There’s no evidence of a mistake in fuel planning. A flight time over 17 hours, convective weather at destination, and two go-arounds burn through fuel buffers. That’s exactly the kind of scenario, though, that occasionally does happen and what carrying extra fuel is for (and there as likely some margin still to do so).
The crew made logical choices to go around for weather, consider a diversion, accept the better runway, declare minimum fuel, and then declare Mayday when the second go-around made further delay unacceptable.
Where things broke down was lack of runway protection after the flight had already declared minimum fuel. With a plane not having cleared the runway, the tower was right to order a go-around. And I’m not second-guessing putting that plane on the runway ahead of Emirates, or clearing Emirates behind them in a minimum fuel condition, but it’s what turned tight fuel into an emergency.
All is well that ends well but there were opportunities to land at large airports farther north on Florida after headwinds slowed down their flight. How do I know the flight was slowed down? I subtract the extra half hour for the extra landing and the extra attempt from the 17:16 and compare that to the normal flight time. I wonder if bad weather was at many of the large airports in Florida. If not, they could have landed at one of them and taken on fuel. The ATC didn’t help much by trying to have them land on a runway that was occupied for the second attempt. Fort Lauderdale isn’t that far away so it could have had the same weather.
Thunderstorms in SoFla are no joke. Glad they made it.
FLL runway is pretty short compared to MIA. Chartered 747s land there but with low load. OPF would be the next option with a decently long runway for a 777-300ER (wet runway landing distance can be 9000 feet), or in an emergency TNT if the runway is still there
Third world pilots.
@Walter Barry — Third rate comment.
@gary… you clearly have zero knowledge of how flying works….. I suggest you find reputible sources for how MIN fuel vs EMERGENCY fuel works.
Here’s one piece of advice: If you advise ATC you’re min fuel but are NOT requesting priority then it’s “thanks for letting us know”. if you are requesting priority then you declare an emergency and GO.
You made this ordeal bigger than it needs to be.
Also, this whole “it would take longer to get into FLL” nonsense is just that.. nonsense. It takes 4-6 minutes to go from MIA to FLL as an emergency aircraft. I did it last summer in my A320 from FLL into MIA.
Walter Barry…..great example of how stupid people can be on the internet!…..you made it clear you nothing about flying airliners yet you felt you should speak up! Guessing you are MAGA……
@steve – you did not actually disagree with anything i actually wrote.
this was not an emergency aircraft when the emirates flight inquired about fll
@John
At least I can string together a proper sentence, unlike you.
Yes I’m MAGA, most people who contribute to society are. It’s the leeches like you who aren’t.
@John — Fairly confident @Walter Barry is actually on the Kremlin payroll, toiling away in a troll farm somewhere. Feel free to mock him (or pity him), but whatever you do… please understand, it is not possible to ‘reason’ with him. Bah!
@John
Walter Barry is correct on third world pilots. Now I might not agree with him on the Emirates guys but there is a reason you will never see me on a Lion Air or Ethiopian Air jet.
No, @Coffee Please, you and @Walter Barry are not correct, and are just pandering to some folks’ worst instincts for hate and ignorance.
And yet, you attack two airlines that were victim to Boeing’s corporate greed, not bad pilots. What a shameful attempt at vilifying others. Sheesh.
@1990
I can read Aviation Week, accident reports, etc. Be my guest with some of these carriers and operators. Not me.
@Coffee Please — “I can read…” Phew!
Never argue with maga imbeciles (kind of a redundant statement, isn’t it?) in public…nah, there is no way someone looking at it will have any doubts who the imbecile is.
To be precise, maga are not contributors to society, they’re contributors (suckers) to a grifter (English lesson to maga imbeciles – they’re, not their and not there).
@1990. You obviously haven’t.
The cabin crew on the ME3 are a heck of a lot better than those on US carriers. The flight crew have always seemed very competent too.
Presumably Walter Barry has rarely traveled outside of his backyard
@Coffee Please — I read and understand quite clearly that Boeing, not those pilots or those airlines, are at-fault for the 346 people killed in two fatal crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8. Both accidents were linked to Boeing’s flawed flight control system (MCAS) which forced the planes into uncontrollable dives due to faulty sensor readings. The crews on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 are victims of Boeing’s corporate malfeasance.
No corporate propaganda has effectively challenged that reality; it was only the political cronyism of the current administration that has given Boeing’s corporate executives a get-out-of-jail-free card from their criminal guilt and financial obligations to victims’ families.
@gary, pretty much my entire reply to you was a disagreement.
Any pilot who knows anything about their fuel calculations understands Min vs Emergency fuel. Further, you talk about how it’s “unclear” if they had enough to divert.
Guess what- if you do a Go around and then see youre at MIN fuel, you’re most likely going to your suitable alternate in a situation like this where MIA is in the tubes. Like I mentioned before, if FLL weather is better, it’s a 4-6 minute hike up there and youre done. MIA requires you to get resequenced and back in. Honestly, a 50/50 roll of the dice. If you elect to stay, as they did, you still have your fuel, you’re just electing to not proceed for one of several reasons they deemed necessary.
You’re acting like the plane was running on fumes and they were going to be a glider. If you knew anything about the 777, you’d understand the 777 MAKES fuel as it flies due to how efficent it is. a flight such as this has re-dispatch points to verify it has what it needs to continue operating to their destination. I can assure you their dispatchers decided they had ample fuel.
Your sensationalism is riduclous.
@steve you’re arguing with things i did not say but that you only imagine i wrote, when i literally wrote the opposite, e.g that they were about to fall out of the sky even though I explain “Final reserve is generally fuel for 30 minutes at holding speed at 1,500 feet above the destination, though some authorities require 45 minutes.”
@ 1990. Walter Barry’s first comment is a generalization and while overly simplistic it’s not completely incorrect. Many foreign carriers employ well qualified ex-patriate pilots due to lack of qualified native pilots. That apparently was not the case here. (I suspect that not only ICAO but insurance companies factor in on those ex-pat decisions.) I too will not fly on third world airlines that I know nothing about their training and pilot qualification programs. Experience counts.
I am also not willing to assign 100% blame to Boeing for the two 737 Max 8 crashes. The MCAS system could have been completely bypassed had the pilots turned off the electric trim switches on the center pedestal and left them off as a crew did on the previous day. I’m of the mind that most experienced and well trained B737 pilots would have treated the problem as an abnormal runaway trim and taken the corrective actions.
I don’t think being a confused liberal or a MAGA makes much difference in this scenario. What do I know though, I sold my BA stock at $155.
@One Trippe — No. Do not try to sane-wash hate-monger @Walter Barry. You’ve seen his stuff before; he doesn’t operate with nuanced reasoning.
As for Boeing, no, again. The NTSB was clear. These attempts to blame the victims are disgusting. Be grateful it didn’t happen in the US; though, there were Americans on those flights.
So, going over to FlightAware…
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAE213/history/20260516/2225Z/OMDB/KMIA
The routing was like 400 miles longer than planned (there seem to have been some odd decisions in the Middle East – they went NW before turning SW for some reason). Add in a headwind (they seemed to be fighting one over the Middle East) and that could blow any fuel reserves.
@1990
It is interesting that more than one US airline including American said the Max bug was not an issue for them and they wished their aircraft weren’t ground. American is a company I trust with my life several times a month, and for good reason. I read the report for the Ethiopia flight and the pilots clearly did not understand what was happening. That is a training issue
I will avoid the rest of the political banter.
@1990
Even after Boeing sent out a bulletin after the Lion Air crash the Ethiopian pilots failed to maintain aircraft control. On top of that they left the thrust levers in takeoff power and the jet continued to accelerate and accelerate and accelerate. Very poor piloting skills.
@Connor, @Coffee Please — Nope. Wrong again.
Extensive government investigations, regulatory audits, and the legal system have squarely established that Boeing bears the primary responsibility for the design flaws and deceptive practices that led to the two 737 MAX crashes (Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302), which killed 346 people.
While aviation accidents are rarely caused by a single isolated event, the ultimate blame rests with Boeing. The manufacturer designed a flawed system with a catastrophic single point of failure, actively hid its existence from operators to cut costs, and failed to adequately prepare pilots to handle a malfunction.
Whether you realize it or not, you and a few others here are perpetuating pro-Boeing corporate propaganda by attempting to sow doubt and blame the victims. That’s messed up.
@1990 – You know nothing about nuance. Your reasoning – “Trump bad, Democrats outstanding” ; “Corporations evil, workers unite” ; “Capitalism greedy, communism nirvana”.
@ 1990. You’re embracing the line the press and PI lawyers preferred. The world’s largest operator of B-737’s (all variants except for the -800/-900) didn’t have a problem with the Max 8. While it is somewhat true what you say about Boeing, I cannot ,with my many years and hours in the B-737, assign 100% blame to Boeing. Training and experience matters especially in abnormal situations.