Originally Posted by
Fright Level
I often read comms transcripts from US events and there seems a reluctance to use ICAO standard phraseology. "We are an emergency" doesn't have the gravitas of a mayday call which I thought was what it should have been.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67899564
Originally Posted by
Matt2725
From the audio I heard, even after the pilot declared they were an emergency, the next controller on approached asked again if they were an emergency aircraft (not sure why this wasn't passed on. I can only assume the Alaska wasn't squawking 7700 for some reason). The pilot reponsed in the affirmative, and gave the souls and fuel onboard. Yet soon after, ATC asked for souls and fuel onboard, which required the same readback again.
Not sure what we going on with the controllers, but the communication seemed pretty poor throughout.
Flight Level, Matt2725, please see my post no. 78. Not only does it give every one notice that you're in a baaaad way but your clearances can be sorted very quickly, nearby airfields will be wanting to offer you runways and the tower controler will press the big button on the red phone in the tower to scramble the crash crew. If I remember correctly captain Sullenberger didn't "I want to declare an emergency" He used "Mayday, mayday, mayday Cactus xxx double birdstrike (or similar) See this as an example: