Originally Posted by
parkfell
If a MAYDAY is declared by an airliner, will ATC automatically alert the external services to attend the airfield, or is it dependant upon the nature of the emergency.
If the emergency is then downgraded graded to a PAN, can the external services be cancelled and return to their bases before arriving at the airfield. If the external services cannot be cancelled en route, is there any point downgrading the MAYDAY to PAN status.
Again, there are two separate issues here.
The degree of priority given to a certain flight by ATC is determined by the MAYDAY/PAN.
The emergency response (Aircraft Ground Incident, Local Standby, Full Emergency, Aircraft Accident Imminent etc), if any, is determined by the actual nature of the problem. So if the nature of the problem hasn’t changed, then the emergency response won’t change.
In many circumstances, once an emergency response is called, then it would need the RFFS to cancel or downgrade, rather than ATC.