Narrative:

While working the radar at okk; weather moved in. After several deviations to the north; a CRJ2 requested a deviation to the west. I asked the pilot if they could deviate to the north because a west deviation would place them into ord southbound departures. The pilot said no they would rather go west. So I asked how far on the deviation. They told me forty miles. I expedited the aircraft to 11;000 to get under all the departures. I then call 57 (dnv) and 44 (eon) for point outs. I continually asked the pilot how much longer so I could get an idea of their course. The response I kept getting was fifteen to twenty miles. At that point I told the pilots I was going to turn them around and take them around the other side of the weather or put them in the hold. Did not feel comfortable them flying through all the departures. The pilot then told me they didn't think they would have enough fuel to go all the way around the weather or hold. So I asked them their alternate to get them going that way. The pilot then informed me they did not have an alternate. I then asked why not to which the pilot told me because it was VFR over the field. Rather than argue I made several more phone calls; and told the pilot to contact chicago center omic [operations manager-in-charge]. Recommend pilots not lie to controllers! Know they are required to have an alternate plus extra fuel for flight and holding.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Controller was concerned with the absence of an alternative for an inbound Air Carrier aircraft when vectors and holding were anticipated.

Narrative: While working the RADAR at OKK; weather moved in. After several deviations to the north; a CRJ2 requested a deviation to the west. I asked the pilot if they could deviate to the north because a west deviation would place them into ORD southbound departures. The pilot said no they would rather go west. So I asked how far on the deviation. They told me forty miles. I expedited the aircraft to 11;000 to get under all the departures. I then call 57 (DNV) and 44 (EON) for point outs. I continually asked the pilot how much longer so I could get an idea of their course. The response I kept getting was fifteen to twenty miles. At that point I told the pilots I was going to turn them around and take them around the other side of the weather or put them in the hold. Did not feel comfortable them flying through all the departures. The pilot then told me they didn't think they would have enough fuel to go all the way around the weather or hold. So I asked them their alternate to get them going that way. The pilot then informed me they did not have an alternate. I then asked why not to which the pilot told me because it was VFR over the field. Rather than argue I made several more phone calls; and told the pilot to contact Chicago Center OMIC [Operations manager-in-charge]. Recommend pilots not lie to controllers! Know they are required to have an alternate plus extra fuel for flight and holding.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.