Use of PAN and MAYDAY
Mention was made recently that some parts of the world do not recognise PAN calls. This is known to include iSpain, a quite local destination to British airlines. But the problem is that, to my knowledge, there is no definite list of countries that gives any indication about their recognition or otherwise of PAN calls. Presumably information about use of PAN calls in other countries is given in their respective Air Pilot publications, but who is going to read all of these? Until such information is published universally I would strongly recommend that MAYDAY be used for all emergency situations throughout the world, with the possible exception of the United Kingdom.