Originally Posted by
joeyE
Non-expert here..
Any reason the pilot chose Philly (~100 miles away) instead of the much closer Harrisburg?
Too steep of a descent & short final for Harrisburg ?
Given it was about 10 minutes until they were down to 11k ft based in FR24 and they were pretty much in a downwind into PHL at that point it is the better choice. Also much better emergency services availability.
Listen the to ATC recording I posted yesterday, she says: get me vectors to the nearest and then comes back on asking for Philadelphia as the controller suggests the same. They'd want a long runway without reverse in the first engine as well, though MDT is 3km so pretty long for a 737