In "
13 More Things That Saved Apollo 13", it notes that Jim Lovell put the Apollo 13 spacecraft 90 degrees out of the desired jettison attitude (LM yaw, CSM/body roll), since LM yaw was an out-of-plane orientation and going to the PAD attitude would have put the spacecraft in gimbal lock. In looking at the air-to-ground and PAO loop, there is no indication that there's any issue with this, as CAPCOM Joe Kerwin reassures Lovell that the yaw isn't critical.
In the trench, it's a much different story.
After Swigert's fantastic P52 which bypassed the need for a sun-moon alignment, there was a frantic effort by both the ground and the crew to get the LM jettisoned. As a result, Kranz never got a formal "go" from GUIDO Ken Russell for the jettison attitude. In the chaos, the "go" came from CONTROL Hal Loden, which created a stir in the trench. GUIDO pointed this out to FIDO Dave Reed and warned him that CDR Jim Lovell was bailing out of the LM, per the air-to-ground. Reed made a remark that would have been unthinkable coming from any other FIDO: "I'm gonna jam him (Lovell) back in!"
What follows is a very confused series of events, and it really benefits to listen to the whole loop from 141:02 to 141:10, as it progresses from the trench bickering and arguing over the safety of the jettison attitude (the normally cool and professional Dave Reed audibly vacillates on whether the attitude is safe), with FAO and CONTROL jumping in to provide their input. In the end, the question is brought to FLIGHT, Gene Kranz, with the eventual determination that they have no choice but to accept the new jettison attitude. Either way, this is arguably the moment of greatest panic throughout the entry prep for the Trench.
FIDO: We need to have Jim take the LM to the FDAI angles that we gave him on the LM jettison pad!
FLIGHT: How far off is he?
RETRO: Flight--he's gonna jettison the service module to the north--I mean, the LM to the north. We don't want him to the north, we want him to the south.
One thing of note about this exchange is that Kerwin asks if the concern is about the impact on the landing point of the atomic fuel cask (as mentioned in the article), but RETRO Chuck Deiterich explains, as he does in the article, that they simply want to ensure that the LM and CSM don't collide in the jettison. This is supported by the fact that Dave Reed later checks the relative motion of both spacecrafts with the new attitude, and verifies that both will be okay.
Link:
FIDO -
https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=141:02:53&ch=20GUIDO -
https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=141:02:53&ch=21CONTROL -
https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=141:02:53&ch=57
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