Fotheringay - I can understand their little person logic but it is not based on science. Modern airliners fly well with one engine, they are designed to do so. The pilots are generally trained to make a mayday call to declare an emergency, if only to make the point that they do not want to be messed around. That call, is then extrapolated by ignorant idiots that there is going to be a crash. And the M1 gets shut. It takes a fair while to close a motorway. In the process, there is a very reasonable chance that others will be injured due to the unusual activity of the closing process. Re-routed motorway traffic will then be jeopardising others by travelling on roads not designed for such traffic loads. So in the process, thousands will be inconvenienced, several crashes will have occurred and many people's lives will have unnecessarily be put at risk. All because of a bloody idiot who doesn't understand risk management.
And is it OK to call mayday or do we have to give prior notice? And why aren't other major roads and railways shut when there are emergencies? Should we maybe stop flying? Or should we stop driving because we kill a few thousand people on the roads every year?
PM