Originally Posted by
SpiralStability
thanks all for your responses, really useful.
one further question - does making a mayday call ever guarantee a sterile runway?
I guess your answer will be similar i.e. it depends - there are some failures on the bus where once the gear is down, we are effectively committed due to the huge increase in fuel burn and therefore making a go-around almost always a non-starter. I therefore generally recommend requesting landing clearance at 10 miles before extending the gear. Any thoughts?
Many years ago in a far off land I had an Orion A300 on finals when a 747 downwind called Mayday to approach with an electrical fire on board and subsequently turned base.
Single runway so I sent Orion around....thinking was if Orion blocks runway with a burst tyre then 747 is not a happy bunny. No questions asked of my decision. ...but that was then.