Well mr 411 and idle hands, good posts but in fact i do hold an faa atp, cfi,cfii,mei, and lived and worked in the us for 10 years based in kteb and think the aviation system is great over there. I can understand your resentment of the radio police in europe and i would not consider myself one of them. As i said the usa as im sure you know has signed up to icao and most of their procedures and if the usa has differences it must file it with icao and publish them .Auctually i could count on one hand all the times icao was mentioned during my study of the atp gliem manual. you can have all the local procedures you like but if this incident had been an accident the crew would have a very serious finding against them . yes we all know what saying on the radio im declareing an emergency means thats fine in english speaking countrys but take that to other places not so hot on english (and they are there ) and you have a big problem . My point is the pilot snapped at the controller " Ive told you 3 times " well if he done it right the first time the controller would have been in no doubt .Well thats my two cents worth and wont make a differnce