Emergency Descents
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Emergency Descents
I imagine it is standard practice for most airlines to go straight into an emergency descent following uncontrollable pressurisation failure.
Part of the SOP is to turn 60 deg off "the airway".
Not only has the sheer density of traffic increased over the years but the concept of an airway has become rather hazy, given the plethora of direct routings.
In other words, someone descending rapidly with no prior warning must give an ATCO palpitations.
If you gotta go, you gotta go!
But what do you ATC people think is the best way to handle what might be a remote occurrence but does sometimes happen?
Part of the SOP is to turn 60 deg off "the airway".
Not only has the sheer density of traffic increased over the years but the concept of an airway has become rather hazy, given the plethora of direct routings.
In other words, someone descending rapidly with no prior warning must give an ATCO palpitations.
If you gotta go, you gotta go!
But what do you ATC people think is the best way to handle what might be a remote occurrence but does sometimes happen?
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I would think twice about descending immediately. Why not (after oxygen masks obviously) make a call to ATC something along the lines of "mayday, mayday, mayday, (callsign) requesting emergency descent".
ATC could then say "cleared to FL150 initially, turn onto heading xxx".
How long would that take? 30 seconds, a minute perhaps? I don't think this would make that much difference. Its going to take probably less than 10 minutes to descend to FL100. However, it obviously depends on the problem causing the depressurisation. But 30 seconds, or even 60 seconds, if it means you don't hit another aircraft, surely it is worth thinking about?
ATC could then say "cleared to FL150 initially, turn onto heading xxx".
How long would that take? 30 seconds, a minute perhaps? I don't think this would make that much difference. Its going to take probably less than 10 minutes to descend to FL100. However, it obviously depends on the problem causing the depressurisation. But 30 seconds, or even 60 seconds, if it means you don't hit another aircraft, surely it is worth thinking about?
