Emergency? Big deal. Why do Ppruners often dig so hard for every such declaration on an ATC freq.?
In the US, we would have to declare an emergency on a certain aircraft (such as precautionary landing over max landing wt., or engine failure...), but even for a legal reason (re-certification for noise): for using the original full landing flaps on a slippery runway [and used for over 20 years], because of the non-standard flap setting!
Pilots who worked here for certain freight airlines, i.e. Connie Kallitta, were instructed never to declare an emergency for an engine shutdown or flame-out at altitude. They just told ATC that they need a descent-now! They would be fired in such situations if the company heard about so many emergency declarations. The FAA allowed this situation to be quite commonplace-THEY did not want to know about it...........................
Their employer would have attracted much attention from the FAA (CAA).
A pilot at another US passenger carrier, who had flown for a certain European Navy squadron, told me that he flew a freighter DC-6 with an engine ON FIRE into an airport in North Carolina-he also never declared anything with ATC-this baffled the tower controller who saw the smoke and flames. The infamous company would have fired the Captain because the company cheated on everything possible in order to avoid extra maintenance expenses. He also flew DC-3s, Falcons and Lears. Again, one of the very numerous situations in which the FAA did not want to hear about it-because only freight was carried onboard.
