Warped Factor,
Yes that was one of the reasons given. Our resposnse was it was totaly unacceptable.
OK, I can understand why the crew wouldn't want the greater public to know, but at some point they are going to have to come clean. The trouble is that if they do that at the last minute they run the risk of the emergency services not being there in time.
Some pilots have complained (probably rightly) that emergency services have little understanding of aircraft emergencies. , its also true that crews have no real idea of how emergency services plan to deal with it should it go wrong.
In order to get everything in place with the minimum of fuss we need time. The LFB and LAS need to get thier vehicles to the airport, Police need to get outside traffic units to choke points to try to keep emergency access/egress routes open, roads on the airport may need to be closed this all takes time. Declearing a problem on finals doesn't give anyone a chance in hell, and may well cause loss of life.
There is a lot lot more to an aircraft accident the fire service squirting foam about, then a few ambulances trundling along and picking up the injured, leaving the old bill to guard the wreckage so no one nicks it.
The original post says that this call was a Full Emergency, the response from some aircrew is its an over reaction, can I remind you Kegworth was a full emergency.