Originally Posted by
Squawk7700
WetCompass, you are correct, the mayday call is a little strange. I guess it was a heat of the moment thing and far from rehearsed. If seems like he’s calling mayday for the downed aircraft, but realistically he’s declaring a mayday for the situation that covers both aircraft. What I do personally find a little strange (and again, with a shot of adrenaline thrown in there) is that he mentioned words to the effect of “we can see a splash mark; I don’t know what’s going on down there.” It’s just how he reacted to the situation, but it’s like he didn’t know what happened to the other aircraft.
Exactly my understanding.
Yes, there's the heat in the moment. Not blaming the surviving pilot, I might have done the same.
ATC asking him to squawk ident seems to be that ATC wants to locate the suspected crash site for a search of a downed aircraft. There appears to be no mayday action regarding the return flight, and I'm suggesting there should have been. Just like some discussion further up, the returning aircraft has been in a collision that took out one aircraft, it should not be assumed the damage to the returning aircraft is minor.