When do you declare emergency fuel?

• A. Once below 30 min remaining
• B. At 60 min remaining
• C. When fuel is about to run out
• D. With any fuel imbalance

Answer: (A)

Declaring emergency fuel is about signaling to air traffic control that your fuel supply has fallen to a critical level and you need priority handling to land safely. In many training scenarios, the trigger for this is when you have less than 30 minutes of fuel remaining. Reaching that point indicates you may not complete the flight with planned reserves and contingencies, so you alert ATC, request priority, and are prepared to divert if needed to a suitable airport with enough fuel to land safely. Waiting until you have a larger remaining time (like 60 minutes) isn’t urgent enough, and declaring only when fuel is about to run out is too close to a dangerous situation. A fuel imbalance is a separate concern and doesn’t by itself denote emergency fuel. So the recommended threshold is below 30 minutes remaining.