Aviation Disaster Averted

There were 13 minutes of drama over the skies of New Orleans Monday morning. United flight 497 took off destined for San Francisco. Within minutes, the pilot requested a return to the airport because of smoke in the aircraft. As he was making his turn he declared an emergency and requested the longest runway. Unfortunately, there were construction vehicles on it and as they tried to clear the vehicles, he lost all instruments. Now he needed the tower to direct him home and his favored runway was not available. He quickly adapted to the situation and headed for the shorter N-S runway. By now he was at 600 feet and must have rattled a few houses as he headed in from Lake Pontchartrain. He hit the deck so hard that he blew a tire and skidded off the runway. But everyone walked away! Follow this link for an audio and transcript.