...is largely irrelevant - as Australian registered aircraft are approved to use their Flight Admin manual and procedures. The Jepp WWT (world wide text) outlines a summary of the main changes which are relevant (in addition to company Route Manual).
I agree blueloo, however that being the case don't you think that this situation warranted a PAN CALL a lot sooner? Whether we picked up only bits and pieces of the transcript through the above links or not, it just sounded quite disjointed. Hardly textbook coming from the boys/girls with perfect radio calls everywhere else!!
From what we have seen over the years the USA /FAA /ATC dont have a particularly good track record with Radio Voice Procedure. Its all a bit care free really.
Having worked over there before I agree. In a way they were fortunate the controller was 'care free' (as you put it) and able to provide them with exactly what they required. I'm still a big fan of using standard phraseology regadless of where you are in the world. Who knows why calls that involve a matter of urgency/emergency cannot be the same for all regulators? It can't be that hard to agree (ICAO, FAA, JAA) on this standard as a bare minimum can it??
On a side note. Have you got a link or reference for that 'Jepp WWT' for me? I can't seem to find it in my set. Cheers