Animated recreation with audio:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7-zh7Sebr8

* Via: https://forums.liveatc.net/atcaviation-audio-clips/ual-328-u...

If anyone else is wondering what ZIMMR means in this context, it is a specific feature of the Denver airport: https://ja.flightaware.com/resources/airport/DEN/DP/ZIMMR+TW...

A specific location. Waypoints used in IFR approaches are given unique, 5-letter, usually pronounceable, names.

As well as being unique they're chosen to avoid similar sounding ones being near each other. So KITES and SITES might both exist but they'd never be anywhere that you could confuse one for the other.

How come the discrete audio on 120.15 was not available?

LiveATC uses volunteers to record well-known frequencies at various airports. 120.15 may have been stood-up in an ad hoc fashion, so there was no radio configured to record it.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airband

When control described it as "discrete" was it because they know that listeners wouldn't be prepared to monitor it? I find it odd that a public frequency would be described as discrete without some greater barrier to listening in.

You are thinking of "discreet":

* careful and circumspect in one's speech or actions, especially in order to avoid causing offense or to gain an advantage.

The word they were using was "discrete":

* individually separate and distinct.

120.15 is/was not used for anything else at Denver, so people could talk about the situation on the ground without effecting the operations elsewhere. Once the problem was 'contained', the rest of the airport could go back to operating 'normally' on the other runways.

I see. Thank you for clarifying that.

I'm still a bit surprised that the audio went uncaptured. It is interesting how much information that would be interesting to the public still spills into the ether.

The right engine was out and the pilot chose to do a left turn. Is the choice related?

It's good airmanship to turn into your "good" engine.

Why? Surely it's easier to turn the other way? Then again, it's not a dogfight, so maybe less chance of losing control if turning into the working engine?

Because you may not be able to get out of your turn that way. The aircraft 'wants' to turn over the bad engine so you could easily get caught in a feed-forward situation.

> Surely it's easier to turn the other way?

That's exactly why. Because then it helps you getting out of your turn, instead of fighting against it.

WRT the debris video: personally, I would be paying more attention to looking for anything falling in my direction. The debris may flutter like falling paper, but they are much more substantial.

Those are heavy objects falling onto a kids soccer field and nobody yells "HEADS UP!", "FORE!" or "RUN FOR COVER!". How considerate.

It looks like they've got plenty of time to move out of the way.

I'd guess looking upwards at some awkward shaped objects falling down, it's not easy to guess where they will come down.

If this ever happens to you and it seems like the falling object is not moving in your field of view: run away at a 90 degree angle.