I was a passenger on a flight from Atlanta to Orlando in a 757.
About half way, at probably FL 310, passengers and crew detected
smoke in the cabin. Spoilers came out full, gear stayed in. We
pitched down and headed for Jacksonville. JAX was probably 40 - 50
miles to the east of our course, but we landed in less than 10 minutes
and were met by the equipment.
The smoke turned out to be coming from a short in the 'crew computer';
the system that kept track of crew duty time.
I'm not sure if we hit 10000 fpm descent, since we also had to cover
about 40- 50 miles laterally, but we were getting down fast!

Mike Pvt/IFR N44979 PA28-181 at KRYY


David Lesher wrote:
An OT query for folks here. While discussing things that can happen
between the jetways, I posited that it's a really bad to be aloft
in Big Iron in a medical emergency, etc. -- based on how long it
takes to get on the ground.



That brings up the question of how long that time really is....

So:
If you are at cruise in Boeing's finest at FL430 & declare an
emergency; how fast CAN you be down and stopped? (Or Airbus, for
that matter....)

Assuming ATC can clear a lane, I assume it's a function of how
steep a decent you can use without exceeding the max IAS. What are
the limits on speed brakes, dropping gear, etc. to dirty things ups?

Do you slow to gear-down speed, drop them, then nose over? Or is
the higher speed possible w/ gearup better?