gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
I was reading an NTSB report about a DC8 that was making an emergency landing earlier in this year after a cargo smoke detector activated. The report cited the action of the controller who gave the flight crew a runway change (27L vs 27R) without specifically indicating that he wanted the plane to sidestep to the adjacent runway.
I'm rather surprised that ATC would even specify a runway during an emergency landing let alone force a change and I'm equally surprised that the NTSB would focus on the lack of clarity in the runway change instead of the more pertinent (IMO) issue of specifying any particular runway for an airplane with a fire in the cargo hold. I thought the standard response to such a situation was "cleared to land any runway".
The report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2006/A06_65.pdf
I'm rather surprised that ATC would even specify a runway during an emergency landing let alone force a change and I'm equally surprised that the NTSB would focus on the lack of clarity in the runway change instead of the more pertinent (IMO) issue of specifying any particular runway for an airplane with a fire in the cargo hold. I thought the standard response to such a situation was "cleared to land any runway".
The report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2006/A06_65.pdf