Mayday
 

Flying northbound over northern Germany last night I heard a Mayday call on 121.5, apparently the guy had an engine fire. This was possibly a practise because the guy was cleared immediately by ATC onto runway 06 ( I believe ). But the best bit was that someone then proceeded to give a full standard Nigel departure brief to pax on 121.5. If the mayday was for real that would have slowed the system down a bit.

There is no such thing as a practice Mayday.

You can have Practice Pan calls, but the Mayday call is expressly forbidden except in the case of a genuine emergency.

Fair enough. I remember in my PPL days having to practice it but it was along while ago. But it was definately sent, followed by the PA, but I have seen nothing in the press etc which surprises me. Possibly Military?

Woodpigeon, How do you know it was a Nigel?

I don't, but as I position regularly with BA, there is a pattern to their PA,s. As I have made 100,s in my time I listen with professional interest and possible self improvement. I presume their format comes from some sort of company standardisation which is fair enough, but it sure sounded like a BA pax announcement to me. I can assure you there was no racial motivation in my original thread, just amazing coincidence that these two things could happen the way they did. At the time I turned the speaker on so others on the flight deck could hear and we discussed what had happened at length, just thought I would share the experience with you.

When I do a PA, I always say "...and welcome on board this XXXX flight to ZZZZ".
Welcome PAs do mention the airline normally, unless you've missed the first few words perhaps?

If he´s on 121.5 he is probably airborne, therefore it´s an inflight PA. I work for BA , but my PA´s are completely "random".....