"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
...

ATCs job in an emergency is to think straight and get the
PIC priority service and on the ground ASAP within the
bounds of possibilities.


In this case they did neither.



Think about the movie Airport,
that had a snow covered runway, a stuck plane on a runway
and noise complaints. Dean Martin as PIC was demanding
clearance to the runway that was blocked. ATC doesn't have
authority to physically clear a runway, that was about the
only accurate part of that movie.


No, ATC doesn't. But there are people with that authority and Burt
Lancaster had ordered the snow plows to push the 707 off the runway if
George Kennedy wasn't able to move it by more conventional means before the
emergency aircraft arrived.

Actually, "Airport" was pretty accurate, far better than it's sequels which
went progressively from bad to bizarre.



Priority does not mean ATC will build a runway in 30 seconds
so you can land.


No, it means ATC will give an aircraft in distress the right of way over
all other air traffic. They didn't do that in this case, that's the error.