AAL 489 Low-Fuel Track Plot

The old thread is so long I am starting a new one with the approximately
flight track of AAL 489 plotted on the Dallas Sectional.

http://tinyurl.com/ywc9vj

The newscaster stated that he was approximately 10 miles north of the
town of Bonham when he declared his emergency. This would be on the
Bonham Five STAR, which would be plausible coming from TUL.

Unlike initial news reporting, which can sometimes be awful, they
newsies are doing this piece several months after the incident. The
banner shows that the ATC facility had been "retrained" because of the
incident.

It is about 66 miles from the declaration of emergency to Runway 17C at
DFW. The distance to DAL is almost exactly the same. Runway 17C is a
whole lot longer than the longest runway at DAL.

At 66 miles the flight was probably around Flight Level 200. That is a
lot of altitude to lose to trying to land somewhere very close by. In
any case I don't see a closer suitable airport. Perhaps someone else
does? Along that line, Part 121 carriers have listed regular,
provisional, refueling, and altnernate airports. For airports other
than those the crew has no landing performance data, runway width and
load bearing capability, nor do they have any taxiway information, or
emergency support capability. Landing, off-line, as it is known, is a
very last resort. And, the captain could have been roundly critized for
doing that absent adequate airport information. By the time anyone
could have gotten those data to him, he would have already been on the
ground at DFW.