Jim Macklin wrote:
Only after the other traffic was out of the way. IF [the
unknown none of us know] the plane was a 5 minute out
straight in to 17 and it would take 11 minutes to clear all
the other airplanes out of the way, a hold would be
required.


They don't have to have a sterile environment like they do for Air Force
One. As you say, no aircraft can be within 30 miles of the airport when
Air Force One is approaching or departing.

This is entirely different.

When I was flying the line I had only one genuine emergency and it was
on a clear day at ORD. We had just been shipped over to approach from
center. We told approach we needed 14R. They already knew the nature
of our emergency, having been briefed by the center. Once they were
directly aware of our need for 14R they gave us a new frequency.

Turns out we were the only flight on that frequency. We were about 25
miles out and pointed directly to 14R. We never heard about how they
cleared the way for us (we were too busy to care) but it was like we
owned the airport.

As we got fairly close in we could see aircraft using 14L, but 14R was
our's.

DFW has a better layout than ORD and the proper handling of a genuine
emergency could have been handled as well as, or better, than the
handling at ORD I described.

My emergency was before the PATCO strike, for whatever that may be worth.

Another situation on my airline. A friend of mine had two engines
failed enroute in a 727. This is a very rare event, but it is a trained
maneuver. Once the grear is down and final landing flaps (flaps 5 in
this case) are selected there is no going around. The emergency started
about 80 miles out from LAX inbound. Everything was goind good until
they were handed off to the tower and they heard the tower still using
the runway they were assigned. The captain told them, loud and clear,
that the aircraft was incapable of going around and if they didn't stop
using the runway right now, they were landing along side of whatever
traffic they might be foolish enough to have on the runway.

That got it cleared up.

The AAL guy absolutely should have done about the same thing.