Regarding Mayday, if you use it and say nothing else for a few seconds ATC will be on alert immediately, the big red button will be pressed, SAR will have the Rotors running and Fire/rescue will be in the trucks ready to roll, also everyone else will or should shut up.
That 10 seconds could save your life.
That is the purpose. TO GET THE ATTENTION OF ATC. Complaining about using it is just an attempt to justify the lazy attitude people who think the rules or recommended procedures are for everyone else and not for real pilots like them.
Sully made a Mayday call, according to the CVR, so all you hero worshippers have now got something to emulate
I agree.
I would like to add something. In my opinion it is also a matter of who is responsible for what. Because that is the main reason for possible time delay for SAR.
After my incident (a wheel weel fire warning after take-off on a 737) I visited ATC to thank them. During that visit I had a really good conversation with several air traffic controllers. We talked a lot about the subject.
For them it's much harder to asses a situation than it is for us. The procedures are made for the grey areas. For the "
is it a mayday or not" incidents. By doing it myself I win valuable time. When I don't, I know one thing for sure, I loose valuable time. For that reason I am very interested at what time the "redbutton" was pressed in this incident. Not to criticize the crew of cactus 1549, but to learn. Now everything worked perfectly, but suppose the incident would have happened 2 hours later. Every second delay of SAR would have been critical for the survival change of the passengers.
Another thing which I am interested in if 7700 was set on the box. During my own emergency I didn't think of it, but I know for sure that I will
try to do it next time, because It saves so much communication for ATC in the adjacent control area's. On all the radar screens the flight turns red by itself. No need to ask any questions. Traffic is directed away without asking questions to the controller. This saves "bits" for the controller who is very busy with the emergency.
In my opinion captain Sully and his crew did a great job, but we (the avation industry) can still learn from great jobs.
I am really looking forward to the interview on 60 minutes.
Rgds
Martijn