Narrative:

As I was relieving the previous controller to start my shift; a B767-300 was leading aircraft on the VOR approach to runway 13L. The trailing aircraft was a B737-800. The previous controller told the B737-800 to reduce speed and make his approach to runway 13R; the parallel runway but the aircraft still fly the same VOR approach to both 13L/right; they do not differentiate for the purposes of wake turbulence. As the briefing was taking place; the B737-800 may have come within the required 5 NM separation with the B767-300 even though landing a different runway for the purposes of the approach. I do not know if the previous controller had established visual separation and by the time the position had been handed off to me the B767-300 was over the landing threshold. Due to the nature of this non-precision approach and the non definitive method of separating aircraft on this curved approach to parallel runways I am not sure if 5 NM was maintained as required. We need to define what is acceptable with these parallel runways but same approach separation and to determine what is acceptable on a curved approach such as runway 13L/right. It has always been the contention of controllers that flying miles measure separation however in most computers separation is measured point to point which severely lowers the actual flying separation and inhibits the ability to run this approach at all with our traffic level.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: JFK Controller described a questionable wake separation event involving a heavy followed by a large aircraft landing on the parallel Runway's 13.

Narrative: As I was relieving the previous Controller to start my shift; a B767-300 was leading aircraft on the VOR approach to Runway 13L. The trailing aircraft was a B737-800. The previous Controller told the B737-800 to reduce speed and make his approach to Runway 13R; the parallel runway but the aircraft still fly the same VOR approach to both 13L/R; they do not differentiate for the purposes of wake turbulence. As the briefing was taking place; the B737-800 may have come within the required 5 NM separation with the B767-300 even though landing a different runway for the purposes of the approach. I do not know if the previous Controller had established visual separation and by the time the position had been handed off to me the B767-300 was over the landing threshold. Due to the nature of this non-precision approach and the non definitive method of separating aircraft on this curved approach to parallel runways I am not sure if 5 NM was maintained as required. We need to define what is acceptable with these parallel runways but same approach separation and to determine what is acceptable on a curved approach such as Runway 13L/R. It has always been the contention of controllers that flying miles measure separation however in most computers separation is measured point to point which severely lowers the actual flying separation and inhibits the ability to run this approach at all with our traffic level.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.