Originally Posted by jondc9
the initial call only 5 miles away...sorta doubt it, but that might have been when approach control handed off DC8 to tower and the call was repeated.
It's true, they were handed off normally and just got the smoke indicator when contacting Tower. While reading back the clearance, they report "Cleared to land and ah listen we just got a cargo smoke indicator come on can we have the equipment?" TWR says they will bring out the fire equipment, at some 4 mins prior to touchdown:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/...?id=20060208-0