Originally Posted by
SpiralStability
Hi all, would any helpful controllers reading this be willing to give me some insight into the practical differences in actions that ATC take in the event of a commercial airliner declaring a Pan Vs a Mayday.
I’m a 320 skipper working for a UK airline - in the simulator it is often talked about and debated eg for a PAN it is widely believed that you get little priority and operations continue on around you as normal. On the other extreme, if you declare a Mayday this includes local fire services and ambulances being called in from outside of the airport, hospitals being put on standby (including non-urgent surgery being postponed keeping theatres available!).
some general info and background from the horses mouth would be greatly appreciated.
The thing to remember is that MAYDAY v PAN is you setting the level of urgency, nothing else. That in itself doesn’t trigger any particular emergency response by the airfield.
I’ve seen a MAYDAY declared due to a sick passenger, and no emergency response was declared by ATC, apart from ensuring the local ambulance service were aware.
Likewise, I’ve seen conditions in flight that don’t merit a PAN receive a ‘Full Emergency’ emergency response.
So, MAYDAY/PAN is basically how much priority you want on approach and how much devoted attention you want, but emergency response is determined based on what’s actually wrong.