Narrative:

Aircraft X departed SVFR off runway 23 westbound. I noticed aircraft X tracking back to the airport about 30 minutes later and reached out to him. He told me he would like to try and find a hole in the overcast as he had done earlier for departure. I cleared him on a SVFR clearance inbound for mmu from the west. Aircraft X tried with no avail for about 10 to 15 minutes to find a spot to descend through. At this point he was holding about 5 miles north to northwest of mmu airport just outside the class delta. I was keeping him advised of inbound IFR aircraft. At one point aircraft X wanted to try to get into caldwell (cdw) but I was told from the working tower controller there that he would have to get approval from N90 TRACON for that. After that I tried to have the pilot contact N90 approach in the hope they would be able to pick up an IFR clearance to mmu. Aircraft X called me back saying they were too busy and could not help him. Me and my tower controller in charge tried multiple times to help get this aircraft over to N90 for additional service with no luck. Eventually aircraft X [notified ATC and declared minimum fuel] and needed to come in now. I relayed this information with the help of my controller in charge so N90 approach could take the next arrivals out further for this operation. I cleared aircraft X into the class delta again SVFR from the north and provided services to the ground as best as I could. Upon checking the airfield lighting I found out we did not have control of the airfield lighting as airport ops had taken control of it. I was unaware of this as there were no notams for this and no notice was given. I later found out that the approach lights were most likely not working as well. This was unacceptable as we were close to minimums at the time of his approach. Aircraft X confirmed he had ground contact and I issued a clearance to land on runway 23 which he accomplished without incident. [Recommendation would be] having the ability to get ahold of N90 approach in a timely manner to help an aircraft in distress get an IFR clearance.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tower Controller reported an aircraft declared minimum fuel to be able to get into an airport that was underneath an overcast layer.

Narrative: Aircraft X departed SVFR off Runway 23 westbound. I noticed Aircraft X tracking back to the airport about 30 minutes later and reached out to him. He told me he would like to try and find a hole in the overcast as he had done earlier for departure. I cleared him on a SVFR clearance inbound for MMU from the west. Aircraft X tried with no avail for about 10 to 15 minutes to find a spot to descend through. At this point he was holding about 5 miles north to northwest of MMU airport just outside the Class Delta. I was keeping him advised of inbound IFR aircraft. At one point Aircraft X wanted to try to get into Caldwell (CDW) but I was told from the working Tower Controller there that he would have to get approval from N90 TRACON for that. After that I tried to have the pilot contact N90 Approach in the hope they would be able to pick up an IFR clearance to MMU. Aircraft X called me back saying they were too busy and could not help him. Me and my Tower CIC tried multiple times to help get this aircraft over to N90 for additional service with no luck. Eventually Aircraft X [notified ATC and declared minimum fuel] and needed to come in now. I relayed this information with the help of my CIC so N90 Approach could take the next arrivals out further for this operation. I cleared Aircraft X into the Class Delta again SVFR from the north and provided services to the ground as best as I could. Upon checking the airfield lighting I found out we did not have control of the airfield lighting as airport ops had taken control of it. I was unaware of this as there were no NOTAMs for this and no notice was given. I later found out that the approach lights were most likely not working as well. This was unacceptable as we were close to minimums at the time of his approach. Aircraft X confirmed he had ground contact and I issued a clearance to land on Runway 23 which he accomplished without incident. [Recommendation would be] having the ability to get ahold of N90 Approach in a timely manner to help an aircraft in distress get an IFR clearance.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.