Originally Posted by
jugofpropwash
Not an ATC or a pilot, but if someone tells me that half of their engines aren't working, and there's a hole in the plane large enough for someone to fall out out of it - I'm going to consider that an emergency, regardless of what precise terminology is or isn't used.
And nobody said it wasn't.
But regardless of whether or not that word (or the word "mayday") was used, the flight got all the attention required.
There's something to be said for internationally standardised phraseology, but in this case nothing important seemed to be amiss.
Bernd