fleigle
I am quite familiar with santa barbara, which is why I did mention it.
going back to LAX was fine...but, if things were so bad that an evacuation on the runway using slides was needed, then why not land even sooner at one of three fields? 757's are often routinely landed on shorter runways, including orange county *KSNA. And in an emergency, why not?
Bubbers, whose posts I've respected in the past. In your smoke adventure, did you evacuate on the runway using slides?
I am very interested in this incident. I think there is more to things than meets the eye.
Landing at LAX was fine...if things had gotten much worse, a coupled approach/autoland might have saved the day if the cockpit became smoke filled. a coupled approach/autoland would not have been available at KSBA.
maybe the oxygen masks did deploy if the cabin went above 14,000'...but if there had been open flame, a bigger problem might have come about.
cutting off one pack and being at idle for a quick descent might not have provided enough air to keep the cabin below 14000.
if the flight had just returned to LAX, landed with traffic, and used stairs or jetway/jetbridge to get the pax off, the sense of urgency would have been less.
but to land wrong way, *within the rights of an emergency of course), and then to evacuate using slides risking injury raises questions about time critical situations.