The article says they held for 18 minutes while trying to get the station to call someone to get authorization to land. And then eventually had to declare an emergency and landed with 42 minutes of fuel.

So they had enough gas to divert, just like the plane ahead of them, but hung around and eventually had to declare an emergency due to low fuel if they had to divert.

You can't hold and force an emergency when you have options earlier in the event.

BTW, who investigated this? The safety office? Of the flight department? Any problems with that process?