Iberia Mayday

[alosaurus]

Heading north from Madrid today (12:45) crossing the coast at FL360 southbound Iberia seen to enter steep descent (from 3,000 above) and made a mayday call. TCAS alert and avoiding action taken (we were both heading for SNR). Lots of Spanish spoken (but nothing on 121.5)...anybody know what this was all about?

[phantom menace]

I guess if English had been spoken everyone would have been in the loop.

[bar rattler]

...apart from the spaniards

[Airbrake]

No change there then!

[blanza]

sorry

Originally Posted by Airbrake

No change there then!

i´m an iberia pilot and it´s true, we abuse of spanish on the radio, sorry
i´ll try my best on the future and talk with my colleges in the next recurrent training

[greek-freak]

Don't you think that it is rather natural to automatically
speak your native language in stress situations?

I agree that it should be English everywhere at all times but it is very
easy for people from the UK or US to criticize everybody else who is not
a native speaker.

The same holds for academia where it is English all the time as well.

[underread east]

Aye but these are the internationally agreed rules. TCAS resolution may have been avoided if the others could understand what was going on.

[Fat Clemenza]

can we know what happened to our colleagues up there???

[ATC Watcher]

Originally Posted by underread east

Aye but these are the internationally agreed rules. TCAS resolution may have been avoided if the others could understand what was going on.

You mean you would not react to an RA based on what you hear on the R/T ?
Very, very dangerous my friend.

And which rules are you talking about ? According ICAO , In Spain the legal languages in R/T are both Spanish and English , so they are following " internationally agreed rules " as far as I know . Not nice perhaps , but legal.

[Mister Geezer]

Originally Posted by ATC Watcher

You mean you would not react to an RA based on what you hear on the R/T ?
Very, very dangerous my friend.

ATC Watcher.... read his post again and note the word 'avoided'!!!! We are in the game to actually prevent RAs!

And as for speaking native lingo on the R/T... well that was a factor which cost a Shorts 330 F/O his life at CDG!!! Need I say any more???

[Gary Lager]

Please dear Lord don't start the english/foreign language RT argument again, not so near near to Christmas...if one really feels strongly about the subject then instead lets do a search and resurrect one of the myriad bitchfests that have been had on that topic on here in the past!

Maybe the lack of english in this situation was less of a safety issue but instead more one of frustration to us english-speaking rubber neckers who want to know what was going on. Just a thought..

So, back to the thread...

I hope everyone was OK, does anyone actually have any more details to contribute?

[B A Lert]

Que?

Perhaps they only read/write Spanish. One thing to speak English, yet another to be confident enough to use writ English in a public forum.

[calypso]

Perhaps they don't read PPrune but "pilotosdeiberia.com" (is not a joke, it does exist) Try asking there. Even in english...

[QCM]

Originally Posted by underread east

Aye but these are the internationally agreed rules. TCAS resolution may have been avoided if the others could understand what was going on.

So you mean that if you understand what's going on around you,for example an emergency descent,you take an evasive action to avoid triggering the TCAS ...and then you will force your colleagues from above/below to avoid you promptly...never heard that one before...follow your TCAS and don't invent new rules this is basic safety..
Other posts very arrogant with Spanish pilots...be more humble guys,the day the sh}it will be on you maybe you'll call your mother...anyway Spanish is one of the ICAO international language as well as French and Russian,so they didn't break any rule by talking English on the radio...Don't apologize Iberia pilot ,they should for giving so much s]it to your colleagues.

[chuks]

"The holder of this certificate is

required to preserve the secrecy of telecommunications." Well, that is what it says on the back of my German radio licence. I think that means that one is not, actually, supposed to discuss radio calls on an open forum such as this one.

Of course all the reptiles have unlicensed scanners so that if you so much as burp politely that will go all over the News of the Screws as a 'distress call' but why not leave other crews to sort themselves out without all this fuss and speculation?

The British radio licence has no such requirement displayed but I think it is a general rule that one has to preserve the confidentiality of what one hears, even if that seems a bit picky.

[green granite]

Of course all the reptiles have unlicensed scanners so that if you so much as burp politely that will go all over the News of the Screws as a 'distress call' but why not leave other crews to sort themselves out without all this fuss and speculation?

That is the most arrogant and generally insulting post I've seen on here for a while. It also shows a total ignorance of the radio licensing requirements, a license is not required for a scanner so your comment is meaningless

[POL.777]

So whats the story about the Iberia mayday? Any insights?

Happy xmas

[Gonzo]

Green Granite, whilst a licence is not required in the UK to own a scanner, a licence is required in the UK to listen to anything other than Amateur and Citizens' Band transmissions, licensed broadcast radio, and weather and navigation broadcasts.

[green granite]

Technically Gonzo it's in fact "permission from the secretary of state" but amounts to the same thing. Also I believe the authorities will only act on a complaint from the person(s) "owning" the frequency concerned, ie Nats would have to make a complaint before any action was taken, whether that is just an administrative thing I'm not certain.

What really prompted my rant was calling people who listen to scanners "reptiles"

[Lon More]

Drifted a bit from the original post.
Mr. Geezer, for your info ATC Watcher has probably done more to urther aviation safety than 99% of the posters on PPRuNe; he is correct on this. How would you have "avoided" an RA?
FWIW Green Granite I believe the "reptile" remark was directed at members of the press.