Originally Posted by
silverstrata
The request for an ATC-determined turn was natural and logical, and for ATC to then overload the pilots with a “which way” request was stupid in the extreme. The crew may not even instantly know where the airport is (it being behind them), nor where any prohibited areas, terrain restrictions, or conflicting traffic may be.
Stupid is a bit of an overstatement. As they said "turn" rather than "return" it is not entirely obvious to ATC where they need to go and having stated an engine failure and depending on the circumstances there might be a preferential side to turn. In a perfect world they might have said "return" or said "turn right or left" but calling ATC stupid for asking feels inappropriate
Originally Posted by
silverstrata
ATC should have kept things simple, and just given a normal traffic pattern back to the departure runway: “this will be a left-hand circuit for rwy 26”. And perhaps for reassurance added: “other options available, if you require”.
(Remember, the crew need to know the runway to set up the ILS - they don’t need a guessing-game for which approach, while dealing with an engine fire.)
I've never been to Denver but with the number of runways they seem to have according to the Radar display, it seems a bit unlikely that the departure runway would also be the arrival runway. They might have briefed a different runway for an eventual return and in any case they need to calculate landing figures. ATC offered them a runway and added that they could have any other. I'd say that's what you want to hear in a case like this.