American Jet Has Smoke In Cockpit, Pilots Struggle With ATC Comms

Trying to communicate or even hear instructions with the full coverage oxygen masks on in the cockpit is difficult under non-emergency situations. Cut the guys some slack.

Lot of going on for these pilots. Checklists have to been run, they've got to navigate the plane, plan for an airport return and decide what should/needs to be communicated to flight attendants. You don't want a passenger to begin to totally freak out.

We need to get the controllers the SOBs and fuel ourselves. It always turns into a game show when you are trying to fly and run checklists.

I have personally had this happen to me as a captain on the MD 80. This is one of the worst scenarios I think there is in aviation. The smoke causes your eyes and throat to burn until you get your oxygen mask on. The reduced visibility makes it difficult to read the emergency check list.
Bad day, a very bad day!

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.

I agree that smoke in the cockpit is one of the worst emergencies a pilot can encounter. The complexity of the procedure, which also attempt to isolate the source of smoke, far exceeds the complexity of engine failure or engine fire/severe damage checklists.

Listening to the audio, it appears from the change in acoustics that the crew may have been communicating with the oxygen masks on, which is standard procedure for smoke in the cockpit.
When putting on oxygen masks in a hurry the normal headsets are sometime swept away and may be difficult to put back on, forcing the crew to use the overhead speakers to listen to ATC.
Later the acoustics improved again, which might be an indication that later the crew may have been using the normal headsets again.

I am glad that this event turned out well.