A lot of interesting things show up on Channel 9. For example yesterday I was flying LAX-MCO in the afternoon and noticed the descent was really fast coming into Orlando. Put on the headphones and pretty quickly found out why, the pilot had declared some sort of low-level emergency.

A few minutes later the pilot came on the PA and announced that emergency vehicles would be on the runway when we landed as a precaution. Apparently in the back of coach (I was sitting in Row 1) some passengers and flight attendants smelled something odd. The pilot said it was not smoke, but possibly "ozone" (this was a new one to me), which was harmless.

Upon landing I heard on Channel 9 the pilot telling the tower that he felt there was no need to stop as there was no problem evident, and would taxi to the gate. Upon hearing this ATC resumed normal operations, which had frozen on the ground in the area of the active runway.

Now I have to say the pilot was great, when talking to the passengers on the PA. Professional, calm sounding, authoritative, and not evasive. The advantage of Channel 9 here, is I was able to validate the PA announcements, by the pilot's transmissions. Kudo's to the captain for both his actions, and for keeping Channel 9 on.

Epilogue to this. Upon pulling into the gate, they moved the jetway to Door 2 (the normal spot on a 757), then before docking changed their mind and moved it to Door 1. As I was in Row 1, I was standing next to the door when it was opened. A gate attendant rushed in and said something to the pilot about the firemen who were standing in the doorway. Pilot turned around and said "tell them to go away". He then turned back to the front and proceeded to tidy up. :-: