I have always understood that the word “Mayday” announced on any radio channel would bring concern that the plane was in an absolute immediate threat of danger. I understood that the "Pan Pan" call was to be used in other situations.
Now we have an ICAO decision to use the word "Mayday" when the plane may be going to land with 29 minutes of fuel.
I sent
this letter to Michael McCormack and received
this answer, which of course doesn’t say anything.
I am interested to find out if anyone knows where this statement “Mayday fuel” came from? I would have thought there would be lots of other words that could be used – i.e “Pan fuel” or “emergency fuel” rather than the word “Mayday”.
I am sure most will agree we have to be very wary of the cry wolf principle.