On December 23, Southwest Airlines 2547 departed Oakland International at around 1400Z for a flight to Chicago Midway. After takeoff, SWA2547 declared an emergency and requested a diversion back to KOAK with NorCal departure (NCT). Unfortunately, the NorCal approach LiveATC frequency feed has been down since Dec-19, and is still down as of Dec-27. After contacting NorCal approach, SWA2547 would maintain a holding pattern for 4 hours to burn off fuel. It would then contact tower for a low approach to get a visual check of the landing gear for a suspected blown tire. Running time is approximately 12 minutes.
PS. The capturing of multiple frequencies on separate stereo left- and right-channels at a busy airport like KOAK was very useful here. The sound quality of rescue vehicles and ground operations in the LiveATC feed is poor. If the NorCal approach frequency feed had been working, it would take 4 hours of review the recording, so it's a mixed blessing!
