Tower audio released from COA 1404 ax

[Teller1900]

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=110798&catid=222

On Saturday, December 20, 2008 flight 1404 ran off the runway at DIA and caught fire a short distance from the fire house. Air traffic controller Tom Hedeen can be heard on the audio tapes calmly working with ground operation vehicles to help them locate the scene and other pilots to reroute flights away from the accident scene.

In the tapes, an unidentified pilot tells Hedeen, "Tower it looks like you have a plane go off three four right on the left side."

Hedeen asks the pilot to repeat himself and pauses momentarily after hearing that a plane is off the runway. Hedeen quickly starts rerouting other planes on the runway.

Nothing new as to cause, but I think it's interesting to hear the controller coordinate the rescue effort despite less than optimal conditions at the time.

 

[KennyFlys]

It looks like the controller was on top of getting EMS rolling but the ground crews may need some training on the layout of the airport.

On an airport that size, I'm rather surprised there aren't some cameras scattered around to make use of during lower visibility.