KDEN 031440Z 32011KT 1/2SM R35L/3500V4500FT -SN FG
SCT003 BKN011 OVC028 00/M01 A3018 RMK AO2 TWR VIS 3/4 P0004
KDEN 031422Z 33012KT 1/2SM R35L/3000V3500FT SN FZFG
SCT003 OVC009 M01/M02 A3017 RMK AO2 TWR VIS 3/4 P0002
So on an approach in weather like that , smoke beginning at l,000' and filling the cockpit to the point they can't see the runway by the time they're over the fence and pax in the back see smoke in the cabin as well.
One part of that article states the first call was made after the aircraft was already on the ground. In the quickly worsening situation they were in at that height (appx 90 seconds from touchdown) in those wx conditions where seeing the instruments to find the runway and then the runway itself is becoming difficult to (ultimately) impossible...essentially being forced from flying a mins Cat 1 approach to ad-libbing and managing a fire-induced mins Cat 3.... I'm suprised if anyone on the crew would be making a radio call while airborne. Nor do we know yet if they had begun losing any CRTs (the fire crews reported an active fire and hot spots behind the panel after extinguishing), or needed to coordinate a transfer of control inside the cockpit prior to touchdown.
With their hands full like that flying the aircraft (aviating) and finding the runway (navigating) with lousy outside wx and the vis in the cockpit rapidly approaching zero due to a fire behind the panel, the required level of coordination between crewmembers for a successful outcome would have been high in a very stressful environment (as in, a fire behind the panel and no time for an attempt to fight it properly given phase of flight and conditions), so I'm leaning towards believing the article is correct when it says the first radio call they made was after touchdown (possibly during rollout), where the next priority immediately becomes evacuating the aircraft.
Nitpick all you want, internet heroes, but the CFR crews arrived later at an already-evacuated aircraft that had landed in IMC conditions after suddenly being rendered in distress on short final due to a fire behind the panel (possibly losing instrumentation) and smoke to the degree they were not able to see outside well-enough to see the runway. They fact they were over the runway and touched down on it means they stuck to business flying and aligning the aircraft with nobody futzing around on the radio, as it should be....at least in Cowboyland.
Or would you rather have the CFR crews arrive sooner, but at the scene of a crash instead?
Last edited by PukinDog; 8th Apr 2012 at 13:52.