"Leonard Ellis" wrote in message
...

Not to stir the pot too much, but my impression from the media reports
here in Dallas (assuming they are accurate and complete): the airplane was
a B757 and ATC offered the flight two adequate runways closer to his/her
ground track to DFW (McKinney [KTKI] and Addison [KADS]). Per the media
reports, the PIC declined both, I imagine for many reasons including
inconvenience to his passengers and heat from his company. From ATC's
perspective, because he/she declined both alternatives airports, the
"emergency" wasn't really an "EMERGENCY."

In any case, while ATC should have granted the PIC what he/she requested,
in my opinion the PIC should suffer a serious roasting for declining two
adequate closer runways (especially McKinney), chosing instead to fly his
reportedly critically low-fuel bird over the much more densely populated
areas closer to DFW enroute to either DFW's 17C or 31R. If he truly had
insufficient fuel to make a safe landing anywhere, going down in the
relatively sparsely populated countryside would have likely risked far
fewer lives than trying to put that B757 down on a crowded freeway, a lake
or river, or into someone's neighborhood.


The pilot's actions can be judged after the event. During the emergency he
gets whatever he wants.