What should Jo Public do?

[Synthetic]

While doing niff-naff and trivia this afternoon, I was listening to someone flying over the house (possibly a Harvard from Shoreham by the sound of it) when the revs dropped, there was a bang (backfire?) and then silence. I shot out of the house, but could see nothing.

Could I ask GA pilots (or anyone else with a valid opinion) what actions you would like the public to take in these circumstances?

[Droopystop]

I'm not sure. If you can't see anything and have no idea where this happened, probably nothing. Getting the emergency services all excited might be counterproductive since they wouldn't know where to start looking and start deploying resources to the wrong area. The plane might have travelled along way from where you heard it to where is ends up.

Besides, I would imagine that if the pilot was properly trainined, they have a really good chance of making a safe emergency landing.

[robin]

Unless you hear an even bigger bang and see clouds of smoke, do nothing.

The pilot is likely to be in touch with ATC if he has a problem, and you are only going to p*ss Plod off if he gets a lot of well-meaning phone calls for a false alarm

[PompeyPaul]

In this case, if you can't see anything then there's not much you can do. However if you could see something then I suggest you video it. The evidence could be useful to work out what went wrong.

[Airbus Girl]

I often hear loud bangs from Cessnas and Pipers overhead, hasn't yet meant any engine failures though. Seems to occur as the power is reduced in the circuit. If you can see the aircraft is in trouble, ie/ smoke/ flames/ obviously crashing then yeah, good idea to call police, fire and ambulance with an idea of location.
Some airfields are close to motorways, one I know has approaches over the motorway, and the number of times people have called the police about an aircraft crash......

[gasax]

Unless you see flames or an impact do nothing. The vast majority of reports from the public are false alarms and simply waste a lot of people's time and effort.

If you do see 'something' then ring 999. But don't expect anything that looks like a joined up response. I've had the police (on one occasion ALL the police within a 30 mile radius) at the strip several times.

Just a landing aircraft is often enough for a 'concerned member of the public' to call. Inspite of the police knowing the strip was there and having my numbers they all turn out looking for overtime or a simple bit of sight seeing.

If you're in the aircraft then use the radio - ATC are much better at getting a response organised and sending it in the right direction. Twice I've been rung up by police and ATC enquiring about missing aircraft. The ATC queries are as you might expect - G-ZZZZ have you seen it, the police are dressed up in we are looking for a yellow and blue which may have, could have, do you have any information...... It's is just the culture of the two organisations - but I know which one I would rely upon.