Listening to the ATC communication posted by Airbubba. When asked “why do you want to return?” it sounds very much to me like “fire (pause) number 4 engine. We’d like to return to the field and blow it out.” Also I’m surprised this hasn’t been mentioned yet, but looking at Google Maps satellite view of KBDL and figuring out from the news clips where it came to rest, that seems a long way off to the right of the runway, and very near the beginning. (We know they were using 6)
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Ok disregard - I hadn’t seen the bit about hitting the stanchion when I typed that.