Originally Posted by
TWAL10114Ever
Being I grew up in the MLI area, I too have taken this flight countless times and thankfully nothing like this has ever happened. Sounds like the crew was excellent on all accounts. The following link has some ATC transmissions from the female pilot. Kudos to her, the FO and the FA for a job well done!
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Ele...248901931.html
I listened to ATC communications with our VERY young female FIRST OFFICER (not the Captain). I was very surprised at how little ATC interacted with our cockpit. Heck, our pilot declared an emergency - smoke in cockpit - needed to land immediately. To hear all the usual DFW radio traffic, you wouldn't know there was any emergency in their airspace. They have to attend to all traffic in their space, but you would think there would be more focus on a flight that is returning to DFW and that declares they cannot make it back to DFW. I wonder if ATC even registered that we had an emergency. Not a lot they can do, I suppose. Good thing our pilot was cool-headed and not too reliant on much help from ATC.