Date: 201603
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: A90.TRACON, NH
Light: Night
Aircraft: Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Descent
Airspace: Class B BOS
ATC / advisory: TRACON A90
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Approach
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Troubleshooting; Time Pressure; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Procedure; Human Factors
Primary problem: Aircraft

Narrative: Massport needed to take the runway for 10ish minutes for a treatment.  At this point; we had not received any reports of braking action; and braking action advisories were not in effect.  Aircraft X; after being delayed and vectored around; advised Rockport sector that he did not have enough fuel to divert anywhere and was committed to landing BOS.  The controller working Rockport sector communicated this to everyone in the room.  At the time; I only had two airplanes; ZBW was in holding and we were waiting for the runway.  We all agreed that it was highly unusual to have an air carrier be in a fuel state where a divert was not possible.  Rockport and Final agreed that final should work Aircraft X so when the runway opened; Aircraft X would be in a position to immediately land and not be sequenced behind anyone else.  While final was vectoring Aircraft X around; he asked Aircraft X his fuel remaining.  Aircraft X said something along the lines of '15 minutes until emergency fuel'.  We agreed that we couldn't be sure if that meant 15 minutes until flameout or 15 minutes until he would turn towards the airport on his own.  The Front Line Manager (FLM) was a part of this whole conversation.  After several minutes of multiple controllers pressing the FLM for answers on when the runway would open and does tower realize how low on fuel Aircraft X was; the FLM finally called the tower.  When she did call; she said something about 15 minutes but did not have any sense of urgency.  Of course; the 15 minutes number she told tower was inaccurate since time had passed since Aircraft X said it.  Multiple controllers pressed the FLM further for a solid answer on when the runway would open; and the FLM then got emotional and stopped responding to us.  We elevated our tone in an attempt to get her to engage and communicate with the tower the urgency in which tower needed to have the runway available.  She ignored us.  I mentioned [Another flight] and how we had no business splitting hairs on when this foreign [aircraft] would reach fuel exhaustion and fall out of the sky.  I saw many parallels with everything that happened with [Another Aircraft].  I couldn't stand to be a spectator for a disaster of that level.  From Plymouth sector; I called the tower FLM and advised that Aircraft X would be landing soon regardless if the trucks had vacated the runway.  At the point of my calling the tower FLM; we had still not heard any update from the TRACON FLM as to how long Aircraft X would have to be vectored around.  Shortly after I called tower; tower called the TRACON FLM and advised to start in with Aircraft X.  The TRACON FLM was still very emotional and would not coordinate anything with me or the final controller.  She told the Rockport controller that we could run normal arrivals after Aircraft X; but would not tell me or final.Accountability; leadership; the ability to not get emotional when things heat up in the TRACON; the ability to complete coordination effectively.




Synopsis: An A90 Controller reported of a situation involving an aircraft that was near emergency fuel. The controller reported this to Front Line Manager (FLM) and was aware that the runway was closed. The controller wanted runway to be opened for aircraft. Communication problems were cited.