PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - VS24 Squawking 7700 Emergency into LHR Today
Old 15th Oct 2011, 19:32
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Phileas Fogg
 
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Not affecting flight safety then cannot squawk 7700?

7700 can be a 'Mayday' or a less serious 'Pan' and, if I recall the interpretation correctly, Mayday is for when life is at imminent risk and Pan for when life is not at imminent risk ... nothing to do, neccessarily, with the condition of the aircraft.

One middle of the night, many, many a year ago, 'we' were controlling a yellow painted helicopter from Chivenor to Northolt, the aircraft was fully serviceable however the on-board baby's incubator was running short on oxygen supply thus the aircraft needed a direct track to Northolt which would involve crossing thru LHR's zone at an altitude of 1500'.

Traffic simply wasn't allowed to do this so we instructed the aircraft to declare a Mayday, to squawk 7700, and to call D&D on 121.5/243.0 .... but there was not, at any time, a problem with 'flight safety'!
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